Vice president-elect Leni Robredo. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Vice President-elect Leni Robredo expressed confidence that the Liberal Party will be able to submit its statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCE) within the 14-day extension the erstwhile ruling party asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The LP’s failure to file its SOCE before the Comelec on time puts in limbo the assumption into office of its winning candidates, including Robredo, who won the highest post among all party members.
But Robredo said, despite the LP’s non-compliance with the deadline, what was important was that the party would be able to give Comelec the list of its contributors and expenses before June 30.
“Ang mahalaga naman dito, according to the rules, makapag-submit before June 30 kasi kung hindi siya mag-submit before June 30 talagang hindi kami makakaupo,” Robredo said in an ambush interview in Kananga, Leyte.
(What matters, according to the rules, is to submit before June 30, otherwise, we won’t be able to take office.)
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Aside from the LP, its defeated standard-bearer Mar Roxas also failed to complete his campaign expenditure report on the deadline last Wednesday.
LP spokesperson and Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez said they were still going through “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.”
READ: LP pressed: Declare gov’t funds ‘used’ in campaign
No debt of gratitude
Robredo, however, was able to meet the deadline.
The outgoing Camarines Sur lawmaker turned out to be the biggest spender among all vice presidential candidates. Her campaign expenditures totalled to P418 million, all of which came from contributors.
Presidential sister and celebrity Kris Aquino was her biggest contributor. She gave P30.8 million to her campaign.
READ: Kris biggest contributor to Leni’s campaign: P31M
Robredo said that she had agreed with the contributors before accepting their donations that she could not repay them through political favors.
“Naging very particular kami niyan before kami magtanggap ng donations… Kung titingnan natin iyong mga nag-donate sa atin, wala namang favors na kailangan,” she said.
(We were very particular about that before accepting donations. If we examine those who donated to us, they don’t need any favors.) CDG/rga