Mar, LP fail to file expenses report

Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas Lyn Rillon/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Defeated Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Mar Roxas on Thursday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to give him 14 days more to file his statement of contributions and expenditures (Soce).

Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez, Roxas’ campaign spokesperson, said Roxas and the LP campaign team were still preparing receipts and other documents covering his expenses for the May 9 elections.

President Aquino’s chosen successor failed to submit his Soce on Wednesday, the deadline for campaign expenditure reports.

“The primary reason is the voluminous number of receipts that have to be scanned and attached to the document in compliance with the rules and in the interest of complete transparency,” Gutierrez said in a statement.

Comelec Resolution No. 9991 imposes a fine of P10,000 to P30,000 for failure to submit the Soce for the first time depending on the position.

No LP report, too

The LP also failed to submit its own Soce, jeopardizing the assumption to office of Vice President-elect Leni Robredo and its other winning candidates.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the failure of political parties to submit expenditure reports could have adverse effects on their candidates, especially those who won the elections.

“It is in the law that if the political party was not able to file the Soce, [its] candidates who won cannot assume their posts. That is what the law says. As you can imagine, that might have far-reaching consequences,” Jimenez said.

Robredo, Roxas’ running mate, submitted her expenditure report on Wednesday. But being an LP candidate, she is affected by the party’s failure to submit its own report.

But whether she would be barred from assuming office depends on the Comelec, Jimenez said.

The LP failure also affects six of its senatorial candidates who won the elections, including Senate President Franklin Drilon, who was not issued a certificate of compliance despite submitting his report because of “formal defects” in his Soce.

Asked whether the rule applies even if the nominees for national and local posts have submitted their expenditure reports, Jimenez answered in the affirmative.

“If you are looking at it from the point of view of someone who ran for mayor, for example, the mayor who filed his Soce is not at fault if the party failed to file its own Soce. The party will have to be answerable to its candidates,” he said.

Comelec data showed the LP fielded 12,296 candidates.

The LP and Roxas sent a letter to the Comelec on Thursday asking for a 14-day extension of the deadline to file their reports.

Roxas was the only one among the five presidential candidates who failed to file a campaign expenditure report.

The LP, however, was not the only party that failed to meet the deadline. Aksyon Demokratiko (Aksyon) and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada also failed to submit their reports.

The Comelec was supposed to tackle the LP and Roxas’ request, but Election Commissioner Robert Lim, the head of the Campaign Finance Office, was absent from the full-commission meeting.

“We will discuss it,” Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said when asked if the commission would extend the period for the filing of campaign expenditure reports.

Of the four presidential candidates who met the deadline, Sen. Grace Poe was the biggest spender, pouring into her campaign P510.84 million of  P511.95 million in cash donations she had received.

Poe explained that she spent a lot because she did not have the backing of a political party.

“The apparently high amount of expenditures that I incurred for my campaign, as duly reflected in my Soce and fully covered by campaign donations, reflects my challenging bid as an independent candidate, without the machinery and full backing of a political party, unlike other [candidates],” Poe said in a text message on Thursday.

“As an independent, [I had] no political party to help me defray most of [my] campaign expenses, a privilege my opponents enjoyed,” she said.

Without political machinery, she had to resort to advertising, which was quite expensive, to introduce her plan of government to the voters, she said.

Contributors

Poe thanked all the people who contributed to her campaign.

Among the top contributors to Poe’s campaign were her mother, movie actress Susan Roces, and her husband, Teodoro “Neil” Vera Llamanzares.

Roces contributed P25 million and Llamanzares P6 million to Poe’s campaign.

A certain Teodoro Paraiso Llamanzares also contributed P4 million, Poe’s Soce showed.

Poe’s biggest contributor was Oscar Astudillo Valera Jr., a businessman and resident of Greenmeadows in Quezon City. He gave P50 million to Poe’s campaign.

Odilon Tiongson Sta. Teresa and Maria de las Mercedes Urquijo Zobel also gave P20 million each to Poe.

Poe’s running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero, also ran as an independent. He spent P320.5 million of the P322 million contributions that he received.