The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is planning to introduce campaign finance reform in the country by creating an office that would validate the campaign contributions and expenditures of candidates.
It has even invited a high-ranking official of the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) to help show them the way.
Comelec Commissioner Robert Lim said the “campaign finance department” would scrutinize the statements of campaign contributions and expenditures of the candidates in the 2013 midterm elections.
“As of now, the capability of the Comelec is limited to determining whether the candidates have filed their statements of contribution and expenditures. We want to expand [that] to authenticating the contents of their statements,” Lim told a press briefing recently.
He said a bill has been filed in Congress calling for the creation of a permanent department on campaign finance in the Comelec.
To help the Comelec catch erring candidates, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the US FEC recently conducted a workshop with Comelec officials.
“She’s here to help and share her knowledge in enforcing campaign finance in the United States. We hope we can learn from her so we can also enforce campaign finance in the Philippines,” said Lim.