Poll body might end up a ‘damaged’ institution for serving the interest of a ‘powerful’ party

Presumptive House speaker and Davao del Norte congressman-elect Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday warned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that it might end up a “damaged” institution after it decided to extend the deadline in the filing of statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCE) as well as for supposedly blocking the people’s right to question its en banc ruling before the Supreme Court (SC).

He chided the Comelec for purportedly serving the interest of a “powerful” party of the outgoing administration.

“The Comelec should have been the first to uphold the SOCE provision of Republic Act No. 7166, which states that all candidates, winners or losers, must file their SOCEs within 30 days after the elections,” Alvarez said.

“But by acquiescing to the LP (Liberal Party) SOCE filing extension, the Comelec became the first to violate RA 7166, as well as its own Comelec Resolution No. 9991, which ruled out late filings and affirmed that the June 8 deadline is ‘final and non-extendible’,” Alvarez added.

MAR FILES SOCE, FINALLY

It was only yesterday when LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas finally filed his SOCE at the Comelec, making him the last presidential candidate to file.

Roxas’ camp cited “voluminous number of receipts that have to be scanned and attached to the document” needed in filing the SOCEs as reason for the late filing. The Roxas camp arrived at the Comelec accompanied by a truckload of supporting documents.

But Alvarez said the late filing of SOCEs should be considered as non-filing, which should be penalized. Winning candidates who failed to file SOCEs should be barred from assuming their posts.

“We are supposed to be a government of laws and not of men. Having said that, what’s the point of enacting laws if they will not be implemented or, worse, as in the case of the Comelec and RA 7166, the poll body becomes the primary violator of the law it is supposed to uphold and enforce,” Alvarez said.

DELAYING TACTICS?

Alvarez also called on the poll body to immediately release a resolution that granted the President Aquino’s LP a 14-day extension in the filing of its SOCE to allow the aggrieved parties to question its legality before the High Court.

The resolution was purportedly released one week after the June 8 deadline.

“Right or wrong, there seems to be a public perception that the release of the resolution is being held in abeyance until after the sought-for 14-day extension lapses so it may no longer be questioned before the SC,” Alvarez said.

“If these are true, the Comelec may end up as a damaged institution as it will be a party to two very serious violations – extending the non-extendible deadline in the filing of SOCEs and depriving the people of the right to question that extension before the SC,” he said.

Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim recently resigned as head of the poll body’s Campaign Finance Office, after the Comelec en banc, voting 4-3, granted the LP an extension to file its SOCE.

ROXAS CONTRIBUTORS

Based on Roxas’ SOCE, he spent P487 million in his campaign out of the total P469-million contributions that he received. The other P18 million came from Roxas’ own pocket.

Roxas’ biggest contributor was his mother, Judy Araneta Roxas, who donated P110 million.

Other individuals who contributed millions to Roxas’ campaign kitty were Jorge Araneta, P70 million; Maria Fores, P60 million; Jorge Fores, P10 million; Melesa Dy Chua, P10 million; Ruby Roxas, P10 million; Maria Lourdes Ojeda, P10 million; Gregory Domingo, P5 million; Francis Enrico Gutierrez, P40 million; Ramon Magsaysay Jr., P5 million; Manuel Luis Carandang Legarda, P5 million; and Alfonso Umali (in-kind TV ads) P72.39 million.

Gutierrez, however, said the bulk of Roxas’ expenses or about P407 million went to his campaign advertisements.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Leslie Ann G. Aquino & Charissa M. Luci

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