The Commission on Election has ordered Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to respond to three petitions seeking to disqualify him from the presidential race in the 2022 elections.
The Comelec First Division has issued summons directing the only son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to answer the petitions by a group of martial law victims, the Akbayan party-list, and a certain Abubakar Mangelen to have him disqualified in the 2022 race.
"The summons directed Respondent Bongbong Marcos to file a verified answer to each petition within five days from receipt, in accordance with the rules," said Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon, the presiding officer of the first division.
Preliminary conferences for the three petitions were set for Jan. 7, 2022, she added.
The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law led martial law victims and survivors in filing their disqualification case against Marcos, alleging that he is "perpetually ineligible" to run for public office as he was found guilty of failing to file income tax returns and pay his income taxes from 1982 to 1985.
They also said that Marcos made false material representations in his certificate of candidacy when he claimed that he was eligible to be elected as president and that he was never found liable of any offense.
The petition filed by Akbayan party-list is also grounded on the same arguments and cited a 2012 Supreme Court decision saying that the Comelec has the constitutional duty to prevent candidates who are perpetually disqualified, like Marcos Jr., from repeatedly running for public office.
Mangelen, who introduced himself as the duly-elected chairman of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, said in his disqualification petition that Marcos' nomination as the party's standard bearer was “unauthorized, defective, invalid and void."
Marcos is facing at least six petitions seeking to block his presidential bid in the 2022 elections. The Comelec earlier denied a petition to declare him as a nuisance candidate, citing lack of evidence.
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