MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines’ poll body will rule by Jan. 17 on a sequence of petitions searching for to disqualify from presidential elections the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, a commissioner mentioned on Tuesday.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the frontrunner for the May 9 election in accordance to opinion polls, has confronted not less than eight complaints urging the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to bar him from working, primarily over a 1995 tax evasion conviction.
Aides to Marcos, 64, have rejected the petitions as propaganda geared toward discrediting him.
“On or earlier than Jan. 17, the COMELEC First Division will promulgate its decision on the DQ (disqualification) circumstances in opposition to Marcos,” commissioner Rowena Guanzon mentioned in a tweet.
COMELEC’s second division is dealing with a number of different complaints in opposition to him.
Most of the complaints centre on his failure to pay earnings tax and file tax returns whereas in public workplace from 1982 to 1985, which petitioners say carries a lifetime election ban that Marcos has efficiently prevented.
His lawyer Vic Rodriguez didn’t instantly reply to Reuters request for remark.
The Court of Appeals acquitted Marcos of non-payment of taxes in 1997, but it surely upheld the responsible verdict on failing to file tax returns.
Since the conviction, Marcos has been elected governor, congressman and senator and ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency. He stays vastly widespread in northern elements of the Philippines and has a giant social media following.
Despite its fall from grace, the Marcos household has retained huge wealth and highly effective political connections, however its prominence has been a reason behind anger to many who suffered underneath the infamous martial legislation period of his father’s rule.
Others vying for the presidency embody senator and retired boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, Vice President Leni Robredo https://reut.rs/324n4aw, Manila mayor Francisco Domagoso, senator and former police chief Panfilo Lacson.
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty)
