The Commission on Elections is eyeing to release a summon to compel presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to respond to the petition seeking the cancellation of his certificate of candidacy (COC) within the week, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Jimenez said that the petition against Marcos has been raffled off to Comelec Second Division.
“Hopefully, within the week makapaglabas tayo ng summons. Summons, ito ‘yung abiso para sa respondents na sumagot, mag-file ng answer,” Jimenez said.
(We hope within the week we can release the summon, which is a notification for the respondents to answer the petition.)
After the answers are consolidated, there would be a pre-conference and submission of memoranda before the matter will be deemed submitted for resolution.
“Itong usapang cancellation hindi naman po siguro magtatagal ito we expect na makuha ng desisyon niyo mas maaga sa expected,” he said.
(This matter on cancellation may not take a long time, and a decision may be rendered earlier than expected.)
Earlier, the Comelec said it is eyeing to resolve all petitions for cancellation of certificates of candidacy (COC) before the scheduled release of official list of candidates for Eleksyon 2022.
In a statement Tuesday, Kapatid-Families and Friends of Political Prisoners, one of the petitioners, expressed hope that Comelec will uphold their prayer to cancel Marcos’ COC.
“Our petition is plain and simple. Bongbong Marcos declared under oath that he has never been found liable for any offense that carries the penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office when in fact he had been convicted for repeated tax evasion by the courts,” said Fides Lim, spokesperson for Kapatid.
Meanwhile, petitioners from human right groups had asked Comelec to cancel Marcos’ COC for president for alleged misrepresentation that he was eligible to do so.
The groups said Marcos was convicted on July 27, 1995 for failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985, supposedly making him ineligible to run for office as he was a “convicted criminal.”
This, however, was refuted by Marcos, saying it is a mere political ploy. —LBG, GMA News
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