Deadline was too tight, LP explains

REACTING to criticisms and questions about the late filing of its expense and contribution report, the Liberal Party (LP) on Friday said the deadline was “too tight,” and insisted it did not disregard its responsibility or defy the law.

The outgoing administration cited “due diligence” as its reason for failing to submit on time its statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCE) to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), saying it had to wait for the receipts from its members nationwide.

“The Liberal Party is a national party, with chapters all over the country. As part of due diligence, we had to await receipts, invoices and information from all these chapters before we could file our SOCE,” LP secretary general Josephine Sato said.

“The deadline is one month after elections—very tight considering none of the other candidates has an organization as wide as ours, and we had to account for millions’ worth of expenses,” she said in a statement on Friday.

She said the party officially informed the Comelec that it would be late and asked for an extension.

“Now, one week later, we have filed our papers. We did not disregard our responsibility and we certainly did not flout the law,” Sato said.