Contrary to the claim of a circulating social media graphic, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban did not come in defense of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. with regard to the petitions challenging the validity of his candidacy in the May polls.
Carried in at least 150 Facebook (FB) posts published by various pages and accounts from Feb. 3 to 8, the erroneous quote card attributed to Panganiban the following statement:
“Huwag po pairalin ang inyong pagka-Anti Marcos. Si BBM po ay nahatulan ng Regional Trial Court (RTC) ng Tax Evasion pero binaliktad ng Court of Appeals (CA) and (sic) decision ng RTC, kaya nawalang saysay ang decision ng RTC. Hindi po nagsinungaling si BBM sa kanyang COC nang sabihing hindi sya convicted of crime involving moral turpitude kasi nga po binasura ng CA ang ruling ng RTC.
(Don’t let your anti-Marcos sentiment prevail. BBM was found guilty of tax evasion by the RTC, but its decision was reversed by the CA, so the RTC’s decision was rendered meaningless. BBM did not lie in his COC when he said the court did not convict him of a crime involving moral turpitude because the CA junked the RTC’s ruling.)
There was no indication of any source in the circulating posts where he made the alleged statement.
And there is no media report showing the retired chief justice said this. Neither did he make this remark in any of his columns published weekly in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Read the full story on VERA Files Fact Check.
