By: Elena Grace Flores
Diego Tañafranca
Marcos’ SOCE will Include Donations
Bongbong Marcos is certainly ready to report in his SOCE his expenses for his 2022 election campaign from February 8 as required. He cannot disclose how much he already spent because he’s not following it. They also have no accounting before the official start of the campaign period. Donations from friends are part of that documentation.
The Election Expense Rule
No candidate shall spend for his election campaign an aggregate amount exceeding one peso and fifty centavos (PhP 1.50) for every voter currently registered in the constituency where he filed his candidacy. So, most candidates must go around it since promotional materials and events cost a fortune. Donations are quite common sources of funds.
Reality of Campaign Funds
Prof. Clarita Carlos was blunt enough to disclose that in order to comply with the election campaign funds ruling, cash donations are placed in baskets to avoid a paper trail. She said that no candidate is stupid enough to report millions of donations from the said basket. This serves as an ice breaker in many tense moments during the first-ever SMNI Presidential debate recently.
