Republic of the Philippines

Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology

Sumacab Campus
College of Engineering

BBM’s Case of Moral Turpitude: Is he Guilty or Not?

According to the Black’s Law Dictionary’s definition of moral turpitude: “It is an act of

baseness, vileness or depravity in the private duties in which a man owes his fellow-men, or to

the society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between

man and woman or conduct contrary to justice, honesty, modesty or good morals.” or a penalty

of more than 18 months.

Bongbong Marcos is one of the presidential candidates of the 2022 National Elections,

that's why it's important to know the truth to his failure in submitting his Income-tax return in

order to know if he deserves the vote of the people. In Bongbong Marcos’ case of moral

turpitude, he was found guilty in four counts of violating Section 45 of the National Internal

Revenue Code for failing to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 on July 27, 1995. But on

the other hand, the Court of Appeals(CA) did not inflict punishment for his conviction. It is true

that Marcos Jr. was made to pay a fine, but he was never detained. Not filing the tax return does

not necessarily mean that he was hiding the truth in the public. All those years, he thought that his

staff and office workers are the ones who oversee his filing of income tax return and yes it's not a

valid excuse but it's not a clear violation of Moral Turpitude because there is a huge difference

between inability to file ITR and directly not doing his responsibility and moral obligation to pay tax.

And also, note that failure to file an income tax return is very different from tax invasion which

is a form of moral turpitude. As a result of this, we believe that Marcos Jr. is not guilty and free

from the moral turpitude case. Moral Turpitude includes a person's objective to avoid payment of

tax and in his case, there is no intent in doing so, because he has the capacity and resources to

pay his amount due.

 Republic of the Philippines
Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology
Sumacab Campus
College of Engineering

In this coming election conducted by the COMELEC in which will be held in 2022, it is

common for the candidates especially for those who want to take the president’s seat to do

everything they can to find a piece of strong and valid information that can be used as their

advantage against the other candidates which will be reflected the perception of the citizens.

REFERENCE :

Retona, M., Hanopol, N. (2021b, November 12). Final decision to bar Bongbong Marcos in

2022 nat’l elections due to tax evasion is on SC — Carpio. Vera Files.

https://verafiles.org/articles/final-decision-bar-bongbong-marcos-2022-natl-elections-due-t

Buan, L. (2021, November 3). RECORDS: Bongbong Marcos’ 1997 tax conviction hounds him

in 2022 campaign. Rappler.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/records-bongbong-marcos-1997-tax-conviction-hounds

-presidential-campaign-2022-polls?fbclid=IwAR0eOL7nkTe0yfppg1X02yuMTiIY7l6Jm-XGxm

H6q6X4nv1JUT-PtoLOywE

Submitted By: (GROUP 2-BSCE 1E)

Justine Ryan L. Malgapo Syvil Kim Xandrea Cruz Jommel Castro
Maricris Galvez Abigail Gragasin Patricia Gizelle Paez
JohnPaul Pascual Joyce Ann Oliva
Mark Israel Mola Cruz Rae Miranelle Pineda

Submitted to :
Ma’am Leila Marie Fronda