The Fair Elections Act has imposed spending caps for political candidates and political parties.
Those running under a political party are allowed to spend no more than P3 per registered voter, while independents can spend up to P5. Political parties can spend up to P5 per registered voter.
Now let’s do a little arithmetic to determine the election spending caps for Cebu City candidates.
With 547,681 registered voters, candidates Michael Rama, Tomas Osmeña, Edgardo Labella and Joy Augustus Young have a spending cap of P1,643,043.
Those running for seats in the House of Representatives and the City Council have different spending caps. The north district has 248,292 registered voters while the south district 299,389.
So candidates Raul Del Mar, Anabelle Rama and those who stood for election in the north district may only spend no more than P744,876.
Candidates Rodrigo Abellanosa, Aristotle Batuhan and those who eyed south district seats in the City Council had a spending cap of P898,167.
Team Rama which allied with the United Nationalist Alliance and the Bando Osmeña – Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) which allied with the Liberal Party were each allowed by law to to spend as much as P2,738,405.
Modest numbers, aren’t they?
Tell that to the economists and the taxman?
Economists usually predict robust growth during an election year. The assumption is that the market is awash with campaign funds.
Seeing the figures in the SECEs and even granting that candidates have maxed their spending caps, the additional money going into our economic system may not be much.
Something’s just not adding up and some people may not be telling the truth.
Of the SECEs submitted to the Comelec, the pattern is clear. The trend is for candidates to report media advertising expenses as eating up their campaign kitties. That should leave the media outfits grinning from ear to ear.
But what about the printing presses, the caterers and other downstream election businesses? How about the shopping centers? Shouldn’t the Bureau of Internal Revenue also look into their books of accounts and levy the right taxes for the higher than usual income they have earned during the election season?
Then here comes Anabelle Rama’s confession, garnered by a plot of a jealous woman over his cousin’s holding hands and eye-to-eye rendition of the song “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang?” with singer Pops Fernandez, asking where her P3 million donation to Team Rama went. And asking for a refund of the money.
Anabelle SECE reflected P504,686 in expenses. Where is the P3 million she spent in the form of donations to Team Rama’s coffers? If true that P3 million was contributed to Team Rama, isn’t it already above the party spending cap of P2,738,405?
When will the government and its officials know how to do arithmetic?