Gin-athag sang Commission on Elections (COMELEC) nga wala nasaad sa ginpaggwa nga desisyon sang First Division nga ”wala sang penalidad” ang indi pag-file sang isa ka indbidwal sang income tax return (ITR).
Ini ang kaangot sa pagbasura sang COMELEC First Division sa disqualification case batok kay presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Sandig sa desisyon sang nasambit nga dibisyon, ginpahayag nga ang kapaslawan ni Marcos sa pag-file sang income tax returns sang 1982 tubtob 1985, indi isa ka krimen nga makabig nga “moral turpitude” — isa sa mga basehan agud ma-diskuwalipika ang isa ka kandidato.
Suno kay COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez, indi kompleto ang mga pahayag sa desisyon sang ginpaggwa ini sang iban nga mga tawo rason nga lain ang nangin kahulugan.
Partikular mismo suno kay Jimenez sa penalidad sa indi pag-file sang ITR.
“What they’re doing is that they’re taking that particular line out of context ‘di ba? Sinabi talaga ‘yan. The decision does say that but the decision was saying that in the context trying to explain between a crime mala in se versus mala prohibitum,” paathag ni Jimenez.
“This is a very important criminal law principle. What it says is that a crime mala in se is a crime that is by itself naturally wrong. For example murder, you don’t need a law to tell you that murder is wrong. But there are some offenses that are mala prohibita, which means they are considered wrong under the law, only because a special law exists that criminalizes it,” dugang pa niya.
Pahayag pa niya, “For example, cutting down a tree, cutting down a tree is not inherently wrong but because there’s a law that says cutting down a tree is wrong then it becomes wrong.”
Paathag ni Jimenez, indi insakto nga mapinagusto lang ang mga tawo sa pagpalapta sang alegasyon nga nagpahayag ang COMELEC nga wala sang penalidad sa kasuguan kag ”okay lang” ang indi pag-file sang ITR.
“The Comelec is not saying that failure to file an ITR is okay because it is not. Also, very important to emphasize, failure to file an ITR is not in itself necessarily tax evasion, these are two different offenses punished differently under the law,” suno kay Jimenez.
Suno sa iya, ginpahat-pahat man sang poll body ang mga konsekwensya sang indi pag-file sang income tax return.
“Even in the decision itself, the Comelec points out that in fact, a special law was passed to penalize failure to file ITR. So it is wrong to say that the Comelec is saying na walang offense ang failure to file ng ITR because the Comelec said mayroon nga eh.”
Nahibaluan nga sa 41 ka pahina nga desisyon nga ginponente ni Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, ginbasura sini ang disqualification case batok kay Marcos nga nagapadalagan sa pagka-presidente sa May 2022 elections.
“Is the failure to file tax returns inherently immoral? We submit that it is not. The failure to file tax returns is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it,” saad sa desisyon.
“Was there fraud in the failure to file income tax returns of respondent? We don’t think so.”
