Comelec: If you can’t lick ’em, fine ’em

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes: Only administrative fine INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will no longer ask elected government officials who failed to submit their campaign finance reports for the 2013 midterm elections to vacate their posts.

Instead, the poll body will just slap them with administrative fines, said Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes.

“We will not force them to leave their posts, but they will be slapped with administrative fine,” he said.

Brillantes said the poll body would soon release a list of government officials, both local and national, who either failed to submit their statements of contributions and expenditures (SOCEs), filed incorrect SOCEs, multiple failures to submit SOCEs as well as those who overspent during the previous elections.

“Those who did not file their SOCEs face administrative fine. Those who filed incorrect SOCEs may correct it, but they will still be asked to pay the fine. But those who went beyond the campaign spending limit face not only administrative fine, we will also prosecute them,” he said.

Administrative sanctions

Republic Act No. 7166 or the Synchronized Elections Law provides that “no person elected to any public office shall enter upon the duties of his office until he has filed the statement of contributions and expenditures.”

Last December, the Comelec had ordered more than 400 elected government officials to temporarily vacate their posts after they failed to file the required SOCEs.

Subsequently, the Comelec opted to just extend the period for filing the correct SOCEs until last June 30.

Comelec Resolution 9476 provides that administrative sanctions will be slapped against those who will fail to file valid SOCEs, such as administrative fines ranging from P10,000 to P60,000, depending on the elective position he vied for and those committing second offenses already subject to perpetual disqualification to hold public office.