Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 29) — The preliminary conference of a party-list group’s disqualification petition against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. will be held on Jan. 7, said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Monday.
Guanzon will preside over the meeting at the Comelec’s session hall in Intramuros, Manila.
“I will preside over the preliminary conference of Akbayan et al vs Marcos Jr. on Jan [7] at 9AM. Lawyers, prepare! I have low tolerance for incompetence,” she tweeted.
Guanzon said all parties must personally appear. She also reminded lawyers that they must be inside the hall before 8:55 a.m.
The media will be admitted for five minutes.
The Comelec First Division is handling the Akbayan petition, together with the disqualification cases filed by Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law through lawyer Howard Calleja, and Abubakar Mangelen, who claims to be the legitimate chairman of Marcos’ political party, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP).
All three petitions assert that the late dictator’s son was found guilty for not filing his income tax returns from1982 to 1985, which carries the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Although revisions in the Tax Code took effect in 1986, Akbayan argues that Marcos must still be penalized because his 1985 ITR fell due that year.
Mangelen’s petition also requested to nullify the certificate of nomination issued by PFP to Marcos. He said the former senator was never a party member and that PFP’s endorsement was not valid.
Comelec earlier summoned Marcos to respond to the three disqualification petitions against him filed in the First Division.
