MANILA — Ten professionals have filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec), seeking to intervene in an earlier petition to cancel the certificate of candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., their lawyer Howard Calleja said Monday.

Petitioners-intervenors led by Dr. Rommel Bautista filed their petition before the poll body at 5:10 pm on Monday, based on photos of the front pages of the motion for intervention and the attached petition-in-intervention provided by Calleja to ABS-CBN News.

A petition-in-intervention seeks to join an earlier petition filed. But before any petition-in-intervention could be granted, permission of the poll body has to be sought through a motion.

No full copy of the petition-in-intervention is available as of writing but according to Calleja, they included additional arguments aside from those raised in the earlier petition.

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In particular, Calleja said they argued that the 1997 Court of Appeals ruling is void because it only imposed fines, not jail time in the case of non-filing of income tax returns.

The CA ruling affirmed Marcos, Jr.’s conviction for non-filing of income tax returns but acquitted him of non-payment of deficiency taxes.

The Marcos camp invoked the CA ruling as proof there was no tax evasion but Calleja pointed to the 2nd paragraph of the dispositive portion of the decision which read: “2. Ordering the appellant to pay to the BIR the deficiency income taxes due with the interest at the legal rate until fully paid.”

Calleja said the fact that Marcos, Jr. was ordered to pay deficiency taxes indicates tax evasion, a crime involving moral turpitude.

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Under the Omnibus Election Code, being sentenced to a crime involving moral turpitude is a ground for disqualification of a candidate — a remedy different from cancellation of certificate of candidacy.

But petitioners had argued that by claiming he is qualified to run for public office despite his conviction, Marcos, Jr. committed “false material representation” which is a ground to cancel his COC.

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