Philippine presidential race: why Bongbong’s bid may be sunk by a law his dictator father Ferdinand Marcos Snr made in the 1970s
- Ferdinand Marcos Snr brought in a law banning any government official convicted of tax fraud from holding public office. Decades later, that never-before-tested law has come back to bite his son
- Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr was found guilty of tax fraud on his return from exile in the 1990s, giving hope to his opponents that his presidential ambitions could be thwarted. But the Marcos camp is not giving up so easily
Ferdinand Marcos Snr had used his dictatorial powers in the 1970s to write a special clause into the National Internal Revenue Code banning any government official convicted of tax fraud from holding public office.
The law remains in force today – though the clause has never been used – and could derail the presidential ambitions of Marcos Jnr, who was found guilty of tax fraud on his return to the Philippines in the 1990s following the family’s exile in Hawaii.
“The irony is that it was Bongbong’s father who introduced the special disqualification clause and it is Bongbong who will be the first to suffer under that provision,” retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio told This Week in Asia on Thursday.
“The son will be the first to suffer because of laws made by his father. That’s the karma of the family,” he added.
Marcos Jnr filed his papers to run in the 2022 election on October 6. Almost a month later, on November 2, victims of Marcos Snr’s regime filed a 57 page petition with the Commission on Elections demanding Marcos Jnr be disqualified due to his conviction.