Election commissioner inhibits himself from Marcos cases��

A newly appointed election commissioner on Thursday said he would inhibit himself from pending cases of his former client, the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Jr.��

In a letter to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) clerk, Commissioner George Erwin M. Garcia said he would not participate in several lawsuits seeking to disqualify former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.��

“The public’s confidence in this commission should not be eroded by any semblance of bias or prejudice,” he said in the letter. “As a newly appointed commissioner, it is my duty to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”��

Several groups have asked Comelec to disqualify Mr. Marcos from the presidential race this year after he was convicted by a trial court in the 1990s for tax evasion.��

Mr. Garcia lawyered for Mr. Marcos in his election protest against Vice-President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo in 2016. The Supreme Court later rejected his claim of rampant cheating in several provinces. — John Victor D. Ordoñez and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza��