Senate tackles common problems in politicians’ campaign spending

The Senate building at the GSIS Complex in Pasay City. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The overspending practices of many politicians—like “under-the-table” payments for radio advertisements or “cheating” the declaration of their campaign spending—came to light during Wednesday’s Senate deliberation of a bill seeking to raise the cap in the allowable poll expenses of candidates.

“You know, we are kidding ourselves. We set all kinds of limits but we know…all candidates cheat [in declaring their campaign expenses],” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pointed out during the Senate plenary session.

This, after he proposed a standard campaign expense for all national and local candidates during the period of amendments to Senate Bill No. 810, which seeks to increase the authorized expenses of candidates and political parties.

Under the bill, different amounts are set for the presidential, vice presidential, senatorial and local candidates.

“Why don’t we just have one rate for all candidates? If it’s local, then the per capita expense would be limited by the number of voters in the locality,” Drilon said.

“So, it’s a self-limiting amount. Just have one amount as a campaign expense. The size of the voting population would determine the total amount that a candidate would be allowed to spend,” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri agreed with Drilon, saying many politicians “doctor” their statements of contributions and expenditures (SOCEs).

“As Sen. Drilon mentioned earlier, most politicians cheat in the filing of their SOCE, in other words they are not filing the correct amount,” Zubiri said.

“That’s the truth of the matter, many candidates doctor their submissions, unfortunately,” he added.

Further, the majority leader also said that “under-the-table” payments are made by candidates who want to ensure that their campaign expenses do not go beyond the set limitations.

“Ang nangyayari diyan, and I’ll be very honest about it, with many candidates, kinakausap na nila yung ibang radio stations, of course not GMA and ABS, they do not agree to that. But other radio stations, hindi na nire-resibo ‘yan. Minsan under the table na lang para makapasok pa rin sa expense limitation,” Zubiri said.

He then underscored the need to increase the allowable campaign expense to enable such candidates to comply with the spending cap.

“Pwede nating maipasok yan if we increase the amounts now, pwede nating maipasok yan without any legal impediment yung nagastos natin,” he said.

“If we raise it, that will all be declared, it can be legally declared,” Zubiri added.

The House of Representatives already approved its version of the measure, setting the minimum campaign expenditure for presidential, vice presidential and senatorial bets at P50 for each voter from the current P10.

For political parties, the House sets the spending cap at P50 per voter for their national candidates and P30 per voter for local candidates.

In the upper chamber, the amounts have yet to be finalized.

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JPV