Buenafe v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 260374 and 260426

The Court dismissed the consolidated petitions seeking cancellation of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s certificate of candidacy, holding that the 1997 conviction for failure to file income tax returns never imposed perpetual disqualification in its dispositive portion and that failure to file a return does not by itself amount to a crime involving moral turpitude. It affirmed the COMELEC resolutions in SPA No. 21-156 (DC) of 17 January and 10 May 2022 and in SPA No. 21-212 (DC) of 10 February and 10 May 2022, and recorded that Marcos received “31,629,783 votes, or 58.77% of the votes cast”, that Congress convened as the National Board of Canvassers on 24 May 2022 and that he was proclaimed on 25 May 2022. It further recorded that, “[b]ased on current records, no petition for an election contest has been filed before the PET”, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. Thirteen justices voted to dismiss; Justices Inting and Kho took no part because of their prior involvement in the COMELEC proceedings.