If the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Supreme Court (SC) find former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s prior conviction of tax evasion as a crime of moral turpitude, that will put an end to his aspirations of returning the family name to Malacañang, former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said.

Marcos was convicted on July 27, 1995 on four charges of violating Section 45 of the 1977 National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) for failing to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985.

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court sentenced him to three years in prison with a fine of P30,000 in one of the cases.

“My opinion is, if it’s just one year, you can say it’s not moral turpitude, nakalimutan mo lang (you just forgot about it). Because there is no intent to evade. There is moral turpitude if there is intent to evade payment of the tax,” Carpio said Friday night on One News’ The Chiefs.

“And moral turpitude is a broad term, and that will be for the Comelec initially and the Supreme Court to decide if the failure to file income tax returns for several years repeatedly constitutes moral turpitude,” he added.

Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) states that anyone who “has been sentenced by final judgment” for any offense with a penalty of more than 18 months “or for a crime involving moral turpitude, shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any office.”

Carpio, a lead convenor of opposition coalition 1Sambayan, said this provision “has been applied several times” in the past, so this is still applicable.

However, Marcos case will not fall under the first provision of an 18-month imprisonment because the Court of Appeals (CA) removed the penalty of imprisonment from the conviction and left only the fine.

His case may fall under the “moral turpitude” clause subject to the decision of Comelec and SC.

“But if you repeatedly failed to file it consecutively for several years, it would like look like the reasoning tends to evade payment of the tax. So, nasa Comelec yan (it’s with the Comelec) and ultimately nasa Supreme Court en banc to decide if it falls under that phrase moral turpitude, if there is an intent if repeatedly failing to file income tax returns constitutes moral turpitude,” Carpio explained.

Any Filipino registered voter can file a case before the Comelec for Marcos’ disqualification by November 2, but Carpio did not say if he will lead such filing.

“I am sure there will be many who will file,” he said, adding that a lot of lawyers have already reached out to inform him that they’ll be filing a case.

Once the Comelec and SC affirmed that there was a crime of moral turpitude, they can cancel the former senator’s Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for “false material representation,” which is a ground for the cancellation of the COC.

The 1Sambayan convenor said that there is no question of conviction in the COC but it does contain a question on one’s eligibility for office.

“So if you were convicted by final judgment, you are disqualified, and if you stated there that you are qualified, you signed, that is a material misrepresentation. That is a false material representation,” he explained.

Marcos, the namesake of the late dictator, filed his COC on October 6 to seek the presidency. He tops presidential preference surveys and has a huge following on social media with many of his supporters belying the human rights abuses and corruption during the Marcoses’ 20 years in power.