He didn’t win anyway so there’s no position that he would be prevented from assuming because he does not have the Certificate of Formal compliance that is issued by the Commission on Elections to those who have complied with the submission of their SOCEs.
What happened to ousted Laguna Governor Emilio Ramon “ER” Ejercito would not happen to him.
It will be recalled that Ejercito of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino won over Edgar San Luis of the Liberal Party in the 2013 gubernatorial race in Laguna but he was removed from office in 2014 when Comelec upon the complaint of San Luis, determined that Ejercito exceeded expenditure limits in the 2013 elections. Ejercito’s TV ad expenses was one of the proofs Comelec had for his overspending.
The fine for non-filing of SOCE for presidential candidates is P30,000 for the first offense and for the second offense, P60,000. P30,000 is chicken feed for Roxas.
As of today, 12 days after the June 8 deadline (30 days after Election Day) set by Comelec for candidates in the May 9, 2016 elections, Roxas has not yet filed his SOCE.
LP filed its SOCE last June 14 even as Comelec granted its request for a 14- day extension for the filing of the SOCE. The PDP-Laban said it will question Comelec decision before the Supreme Court.
Affected by LP’s late filing are LP candidates who won in last May’s election including five LP senators led by former Senate President Frank Drilon, 115 congressmen and 39 governors.
Romulo Makalintal, lawyer of incoming vice president Leni Robredo is confident she will not be affected by the Liberal party’s late filing. Robredo filed her SOCE before the June 8 deadline. She reported having received P423 million contributions and P419 million in expenses.
Roxas’ campaign spokesman, Barry Gutierrez said the primary reason for their inability to meet the June 8 deadline was “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.”
Everybody knows that the spending limits set by the law is obsolete. The Omnibus Election Code imposes a spending limit of P10 per voter for presidential and vice presidential candidate, and P3 for other candidates, with political parties allowed to spend P5 per voter. In the 2016 elections, there were 54.4 million voters.
A former presidential candidate said one needs least P3 billion to wage a presidential campaign with TV ads eating some 80 percent of the expenses.
We imagine that a lot of accounting creativity were employed by all the candidates to be able to submit an Omnibus Election Code-compliant SOCE that would match and supported by what their respective parties submitted.Then the reports on contributions received should also match with what the contributors file with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
A candidate runs the risk of perjury, which to my non-lawyer mind means making false statements under oath, if he is not careful in reconciling all the thousands and millions of pesos that he received and spent with what the law requires. Online legal blogs say the penalty for perjury is “ arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period.”
For Roxas, why bother to file? Just pay the fine.
Are you arguing for Mar Roxas to have less integrity? Not to do an accurate filing? I’m confused about this article. I wonder why anyone even cares, versus, say, certifying the accuracy of the filings that were rushed together on time if they were indeed put together with, as you suggest, “a lot of accounting creativity”.
It is funny how people are still obsessing over Roxas, who has himself moved on, as he is on his thank you tour, playing golf and mixing with the people who supported him. Are these arguments meant to ease the guilt of people who so bitterly opposed him that he did not win, and they look about and see who they enabled? That’s kind of the way I figure it. Keep beating on Roxas to avoid accountability for what happened.
As for reference, Billionaire Peter Munk, due to his office staff “negligence” contributed $1000 more to his political party campaign fund (only $1000 is allowed yearly maximum) and he has to account for the over contribution and the court accept the explanation..otherwise if charged or booked even if dropped or not guilty, the book is open until he has to get a waiver to have the raps covered or if convicted for over contribution needs to wait five years to even be allowed to cross the borders (pardon can only be granted after five years) And Mr. Munk has Donated Millions upon millions so his personal wealth for one of the world’s advance Heart and Lung Centres and many other charitables institution.
Mar Roxas although lost his bid, just can not payoff his late filing of SOCE..he may fines for late filings, but he has to prepare a True and actual account of his campaign contributions and expenses..nothing is chicken especially the cost of INTEGRITY..
How useful would the SOCE be? Leni Robredo declared P420M, LP as a party declared P240M, for a total so far of only P660M. How much is Mar going to declare? If he declares say P500M, the total SOCE would be just over P1B. Only P1B?!
Ellen’s question is better off directed at mar roxas himself. I heard the man is not so busy with politics now, and might just give ellen one on one interview. text him, ellen and ask him, see how you go. you’re not afraid to talk to him, right? mar has not killed journalist, lol!
It was Ernie Maceda (R.I.P.) who said back in the 2001 elections which Erap won that a “decent” presidential campaign could cost P3B and P6B to ensure victory. I’m not sure if Ellen if referring to the same person.
The requirement of SOCE is nothing but a frivolous and superficial requirement, which numbers all parties are expected to forge anyway – an example of a jurassic creature living in modern times.
The real problem of the LP was not the volume of receipts that had to be reproduced but the amount in the receipts that have to be acceptable to the donors’ tax deductibles – for real donors- and the identity of the fake donors – for money taken from the treasury declared as LUGAW proceeds, etc.
How can you produce billions from LUGAW?
Tongue, the P3 B was Manny Villar’s estimate.
I think second offense in addition to P60K includes perpetual disqualification
MB, this is the first time he’s doing it so it should only be P30,000. Right?
So Mar has submitted his SOCE with a truckload of documents, according to the Tribune.
tribune.net.ph/headlines/mar-submits-soce-with-a-truckload-of-documents
Mar’s lawyer(s) must have remembered that scene from an old Gene Hackman movie, “Class Action”. Hackman was representing an individual who sued a big corporation. Hackman wanted to review documents of the corporation, in the process called “discovery”. So, to hide the evidence, the corporation dumps a truckload of documents on Hackman, as if to say, “Let us see if you can find the needle in the haystack.”
That film was distributed in 1991. In November 1992 life imitated art. The maneuver in the Gene Hackman movie was performed by Du Pont, in the case of
Kawamata Farms v. United Agri Prods., 948 P.2d 1055 (decided on appeal by the Supreme Court of Hawaii in 1997)
law.justia.com/cases/hawaii/supreme-court/1997/19201-2.html
Du Pont was sanctioned, and made to pay $1.5 Million. Sanction, as in punishment for contumacious behavior.
How will our Supreme Court treat this case? Beats me. There is nothing predictable about our Court.
dumpster na pala ang comelec ngayon. I wonder how many boxes did grace poe dump? miriam? binay? duterte? dyos me, 4-5months yata worth of campaign receipts each, hihimayin paisa-isa. lol, so many receipts to go through; that, and the late filing, no wonder a finance member of comelec resigned.
#9. Di ba ganyan din if you can’t answer a question, you talk lengthily, the more confusing the better.
I doubt what the “truckloads” of docs contain as far as Roxas donors are concerned. P110M came from his Mama Judy, P72.3M came from Mindoro Gov. Umali by way of TV ads, then P70M from Uncle Jorge Araneta, Aunt Baby Araneta-Fores pitched in P60M, San Roque Metals owner Francis Gutierrez spent P40M ferrying Roxas and crew around the country using his airplanes and choppers, P10M each from 4 more relatives and a long list of other donors who threw in a million or more. These alone total more than P400M or practically the whole amount of P487M spent by Roxas.