SECTION 286 of Presidential Decree 1994, or the "Amended National Internal Revenue Code" (NIRC), imposes the penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office and ineligibility to vote on a public officer who is proven guilty of a tax-related case, even if it is the mere non-filing of income tax returns (ITRs). Considering that taxes of public officers are already withheld, then the failure amounts not to tax evasion, but to the failure to execute a clerical task of signing and filing a form already prepared by their finance offices. In this context, one can indeed surmise that in relation to the non-filing of ITRs, the penalty of denying any public official found guilty of this offense the right not only to run for any public office, but even to vote, is a form of excessive punishment that would deny a person the exercise of an important civil and political right.
This provision is now what is at the center of the several petitions filed by martial law victims, and other human rights victims, against former senator and now presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. They seek to either cancel and deny due course to his certificate of candidacy (CoC) using Section 78 of Batas Pambansa (BP) 881 or the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), or to disqualify him. They argue that because of his conviction for a tax-related offense, he should suffer the penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, which implies that Marcos Jr. cannot run for any elective position.
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