Comelec exec: Marcos will be on 2022 ballot for overseas voters

By LLANESCA T. PANTI, GMA News Presidential aspirant and former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will be on the overseas ballot for the May 2022 polls which will be released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), an official of the poll body said Monday. Comelec Director Elaiza Sabile David made the announcement after the Comelec Second Division junked the petition seeking to cancel Marcos' certificate of candidacy (COC) for the 2022 elections by citing that Marcos did not commit material misrepresentation in his COC. "The official list is finalized. His (Marcos) name is there [on the ballot for overseas workers]," David said in an online briefing. David said there are around 1.7 million registered overseas Filipino voters for the 2022 elections. "The overseas ballot which only lists national candidates is 25 inches," David added. The Buenafe petition junked by the Comelec 2nd Division was just one of the many filed contesting the candidacy of Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Three petitions have already been junked while three are still pending with the Comelec First Division and one in the Second Division, which held a preliminary conference last January 14. The petitions against Marcos' candidacy in the 2022 elections are largely anchored on his conviction on four counts of violating Tax Code due to his failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 when Marcos was a public official in his hometown of Ilocos Norte. The petitioners are arguing that Section 252 of the Tax Code provides that the maximum penalty prescribed for the offense of violating Tax Code for public officials and employees is dismissal from public service and perpetual disqualification from holding any public office. Marcos' convictions upheld by the Court of Appeals became final in August 2001 when Marcos decided to withdraw his appeal on the said cases before the Supreme Court. 'Hand of unity' Reacting to the junking of the Buenafe petition, Marcos' camp thanked the Comelec "for upholding the law and the right of every bona fide candidate like Bongbong Marcos to run for public office free from any form of harassment and discrimination." "The petitioners' mere creativity for writing and wanting what is not written in the law as basis to cancel the certificate of candidacy of Presidential Aspirant Bongbong Marcos is way too frivolous and unmeritorious to override the basic precepts of the Constitution," said Marcos' spokesman, lawyer Vic Rodriguez, in a statement. Rodriguez said they are extending their "hand of unity even to the fiercest of adversaries and invite them to work together in ensuring a clean, fair and credible elections..." — RSJ, GMA News

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