IN a 13-0 vote, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday junked two petitions seeking to disqualify and cancel the certificate of candidacy (COC) of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying the former senator is “qualified to run for, and be elected to public office.”

The high court also ruled that Marcos Jr.’s COC was “valid and in accord with the pertinent laws, hence, rightfully upheld by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). ”

Upheld by the SC were the January 17, 2022 and May 10, 2022 Resolutions of the COMELEC in SPA No. 21-156 (DC) and COMELEC Resolutions dated February 10, 2022 and May 10, 2022 in SPA No. 21-212 (DC).

Associate Justices Henri Jean Paul B. Inting and Antonio T. Kho, Jr. took no part in the deliberations.

Kho was a former Comelec commissioner prior to his appointment to the SC, while Inting is a sibling of incumbent Comelec Commissioner Socorro B. Inting.

Associate Justice Rodil V. Zalameda penned the decision.

The high court came up with the decision exactly two (2) days before the inauguration of Marcos Jr., who cemented a dominating victory against opposition leader, outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo, in the last presidential election.

He won the presidency by a landslide 31,629,783 votes, or more than 16 million votes ahead of Robredo.

In their petition, political detainees, human rights, and medical groups have sought to cancel and declare as void ab initio (void from the start) the COC of Marcos Jr. due to his prior conviction for non-filing of income tax returns.

In a 70-page petition, the petitioners (Fr. Christian Buenafe, Fides Lim, Ma. Edeliza Hernandez, Celia Lagman Sevilla, Roland Vibal, and Josephine Lascano) have sought to annul and set aside the Comelec en banc’s resolution dated May 10, 2022, and the January 17, 2022 resolution of the poll body’s second division.

The second division’s resolution denied the petitioners’ petition to cancel Marcos Jr. ‘s certificate of candidacy, while the en banc’ s resolution upheld such denial.

Pending litigation on the merits of the petition, the petitioners asked the SC for the immediate issuance of a temporary restraining order stopping the Senate and House of Representatives from canvassing the Certificates of Canvass for the position president.

They likewise urged the high tribunal to stop the proclamation of Marcos Jr. as president.

The petitioners claimed the twin Comelec resolutions were issued with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction by not cancelling Marcos Jr. ‘s COC.

They pointed out that Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code has clearly provided for the cancellation of the COC of Marcos Jr.

Section 78 stated: “Petition to deny due course to or cancel a certificate of candidacy. – A verified petition seeking to deny due course or to cancel a certificate of candidacy may be filed by the person exclusively on the ground that any material representation contained therein as required under Section 74 hereof is false.”

The petitioners added that the challenged Comelec resolutions was violative of the SC ruling in Jalosjos vs. The Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 205033, June 18, 2013

In said ruling, the high court ruled: “The foregoing matter is not without established precedent. In Jalosjos, Jr. and Cardino, the Court held that the COMELEC’s denial of due course to and/or cancellation of a CoC in view of a candidate’s disqualification to run for elective office based on a final conviction is subsumed under its mandate to enforce and administer all laws relating to the conduct of elections.”

“Here, respondent COMELEC failed to carry out its mandate to enforce and administer the laws relating to the conduct of elections when it refused, despite basis, to exercise its duty to cancel respondent Marcos Jr.’s COC in view of the latter’s material misrepresentation on two items,” the petitioners said.