Friday, June 01, 2007
5th district losing bets used personal money
CANDIDATES who lost in the fifth district race for congress and provincial board (PB) seats are among the early filers of the statement of election contributions and expenses.
Gilbert Wagas, who lost to Rep. Ramon “Red” Durano VI, as well as Dean Dosado and Eduardito Valdez, who failed to get the two PB seats of the fifth district, filed their respective statements yesterday.
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
All three ran under the Liberal Party. They declared that their expenses were paid using personal funds.
Comelec Resolution 7794 issued last Dec. 27, 2006 allows candidates of political parties to spend P3 for every voter registered in the area where the candidate filed his certificate of candidacy.
Independent candidates are allowed to spend P5 for every registered voter.
Based on the rules, fifth district candidates running under a party like Wagas, Dosado and Valdez are allowed to spend P805,104, considering that the district has 268,368 registered voters.
Wagas claimed to have spent P340,000, the bulk of which was allocated for allowances of poll watchers, P165,000.
His propaganda materials cost P50,000 while he spent another P50,000 for allowances of the volunteers. He also spent P30,000 for transportation, while other expenses reached P45,000.
Dosado, for his part, spent P160,000 while Valdez shelled out P132,000.
A huge part of Dosado’s expenses went to propaganda materials (P50,000) and allowances for volunteers (P50,000). He spent P20,000 for transportation and P40,000 for miscellaneous expenses.
Valdez, on the other hand, spent P50,000 for allowances of his volunteers while P32,000 went to transportation.
His propaganda materials cost P25,000 and another P25,000 went to his miscellaneous expenses.
In the first district, independent candidate for Provincial Board Archimedes Reroma declared that he spent P12, 015 from his personal funds: P5,866 for car repair, P4,632.50 for campaign materials, P1,500 for gasoline and P20 for parking fee.
Reroma, being an independent candidate, was allowed to spend P1.3 million based on the 278,050 registered voters in the first district.
The candidates have until June 13 to file their statement of contributions and expenses.
The Comelec resolution prohibits an elected candidate from assuming his post until he files the statement of contributions and expenditures.
Failure to file statements or reports in connection with the electoral contributions and expenditures constitutes an administrative offense.
It is punishable by an administrative fine ranging from P1,000 to P30,000, as may be determined by the Commission on Elections.
A second or subsequent violation of this provision means the administrative fine will be raised to P2,000 to P60,000.00.
The offender will also be subject to perpetual disqualification from public office. (MBG)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 1, 2007 issue)
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