President-elect Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte spent over P371 million on his campaign for Malacañang, bankrolled largely by big businessmen and patrons from Davao City, according to his statement of contributions and expenditures (Soce) submitted on Wednesday to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
But Duterte was not the biggest campaign spender among the five candidates in the May 9 presidential election.
That honor goes to Sen. Grace Poe, who reported spending P510.84 million on her campaign, which saw her finishing the race in third place.
Wednesday was the deadline for the submission of campaign expenditure reports.
Administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas, who finished the race in second place, failed to meet the deadline.
The Comelec’s Campaign Finance Office extended the 5 p.m. deadline to 6:30 p.m., but no report from Roxas arrived.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 9991, failure to submit the Soce for the first time is punishable by a fine of P10,000 to P30,000 depending on the position.
Second-time offenders will be fined P20,000 to P60,000 and they could be perpetually barred from running for public office.
Outgoing Vice President Jejomar Binay invested P463.45 million in his failed bid for the presidency, while Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago was the most frugal, spending only P74.6 million.
According to Poe’s report, she received P511.95 million in cash donations from various sources. The report did not indicate donations in kind. It also showed that she did not spend her own money on her campaign for the presidency.
Duterte’s financiers
Documents submitted to the Comelec also showed that former Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., son of the late banana magnate Antonio Floirendo Sr., made the biggest contribution to Duterte’s campaign, P75 million, or 20 percent of the total contributions to the electoral war chest of the longtime mayor of Davao City.
The campaign expense report submitted by Duterte’s representatives on Wednesday showed that Floirendo donated P25 million in cash in March and P50 million in April.
In total, Duterte received P375,009,474.90 million, of which over P298 million was in cash and the rest in kind, such as tables and chairs, light and sound systems, campaign posters and vehicles for motorcades.
Duterte’s expense report also showed he had P3.5 million left.
Duterte reported that he spent P200,000 of his own money on his campaign.
Among his other top contributors were Dennis Uy of Davao-based Phoenix Petroleum (P30 million); Samuel Uy of Davao farms and Davao Import Distributors Inc. (P30 million); Lorenzo Te of Honda Cars Davao (P30 million); Tomas Alcantara, chair and president of the Alsons Group (P12 million); brother Nicasio Alcantara (P16 million) and Felix Ang, president of CATS Motors Inc. (P10 million).
Binay’s expense report showed that there was over P77,000 left of the total P463,453,000 cash contributions to his presidential campaign.
Santiago’s report stated that she had spent all of the P74,652,689.87, which was identified as in-kind contributions received from her political party, People’s Reform Party.
Biggest VP spender
Among the six vice presidential candidates, Vice President-elect Leni Robredo had the biggest expenditure, amounting to over P418 million.
Robredo’s report showed that she received a total of P423,163,737.34, of which over P406 million was cash received from various sources; more than P192,000 in kind from various sources, and P16 million in kind from the Liberal Party.
Her closest rival, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., reported that he spent only P140.54 million. Of this amount, P9.8 million was his own money. He received a total of P130.7 million in cash and in-kind donations from various sources.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero received over P322 million in contributions. He spent P320.5 million. His report showed that he did not use personal funds for his vice presidential campaign.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s running mate, reported receiving P188.9 million in donations. He spent P189.12 million, of which P199,872.48 was his own money.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV received P61.16 million in donations. He shelled out P736,569 from his own pocket, spending a total of P61.89 million on his failed vice presidential bid.
Sen. Gringo Honasan spent the least among the vice presidential candidates, paying only P26.25 million for his campaign. He received P25.9 million in cash and in-kind donations from various sources and spent P296,449.20 of his own money.
Senatorial candidates
Among the senatorial candidates who submitted their expenditure reports on Wednesday, former Metro Manila Development Authority Chair Francis Tolentino spent the biggest amount, P199.15 million, but failed to win a seat in the Senate.
Next were winning senatorial candidates Joel Villanueva (P163.78 million), Sherwin Gatchalian (P157.07 million) and Ralph Recto (P131.87 million).
Losing senatorial candidates Isko Moreno and Sen. Teofisto Guingona III spent over P120 million and P92.30 million, respectively.