No Comelec record of any campaign donation by Napoles

MANILA, Philipines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has not come across any campaign donations from Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, for senatorial and party-list candidates in the 2013 midterm elections.

Based on the assessment of the statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCEs) of senatorial and party-list candidates as well as political parties, the name of Napoles as campaign fund donor did not come out, Comelec Commissioner Christian Lim said.

“We went over the SOCEs of political parties, senators and party-lists in the 2013 polls to check the name of Janet Napoles, but there was none,” said Lim, who is the poll body’s campaign finance unit head.

Lim said the poll body was still going over the 2013 SOCEs of local candidates to see if their records showed the name of Napoles.

Earlier, the Comelec said that a losing party-list group received campaign contributions in 2007 from Benhur Luy, the whistle-blower of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Citing the Comelec’s ongoing review of the SOCEs of candidates in the 2007 and 2010 elections, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that Luy donated P200,000 to Ang Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal sa Ikauunlad ng Lokal na Ekonomiya (A-Smile) party-list.

Asked if they also found the name of Napoles among the campaign fund contributors, Brillantes said a certain “Mr. and Mrs. Napoles” donated, also in 2007, P30,000 to a losing congressional candidate in Pasig City, whom he refused to name.

The Comelec earlier initiated a review of its records to find out if Napoles had contributed to the campaign of candidates.