A LOOK at the Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (Soce) of candidates to the May 13, 2019 elections showed they underspent in their campaign for votes.
The Soce submitted by Cebu candidates showed they spent below the maximum per voter and less than their expenses in the exercise three years ago.
The amount pegged by law of P3 per voter in election spending for a candidate belonging to a political group and P5 per voter for independent candidates was initially believed to be unrealistic, given the current costs of promotions and allowances for volunteers.
As it turned out, based on the Soce submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the cap in election spending was high and was not even reached by candidates. At least that’s what their Soce showed, that they underspent or they spent less than the specified amount.
SunStar Cebu reported Thursday that 43 of the 53 candidates in Cebu City who ran in the last elections submitted their Soce. Outgoing Mayor Tomas Osmeña spent P1,805,076.42 in personal funds, incoming mayor Edgardo Labella received P1,017,604.58 in contributions but spent only a total of P904,225.46.
Vice mayor-elect Michael Rama reported P946,472.96 in expenditures. Some P375,000 was contributed, while P571,472.96 came out of his own pocket, the report said. Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos, who ran for vice mayor, showed that she spent a total of P138,391.62 of her own money, it added.
They could have spent more and it would have been fine because the cap for election spending was P3 for those belonging to a political group and P5 for independent bets multiplied by the 709,608 registered voters in Cebu City.
The amounts spent would appear to disprove the popular belief that elections in the Philippines are among the most expensive in the world. But, really, the Soce does not disprove anything. It’s simply the Soce that shows it does not cost that much to run an electoral campaign.
Also, despite inflation and cost of money fluctuations, candidates spent even less than what they used up in the elections three years ago or in 2016.
Published reports said Osmeña spent P1.85 million of his personal funds for the 2016 exercise where he won as mayor versus Rama who spent P1.33 million and lost. Osmeña this year spent less at P1.805 million for the same position while Rama spent much less at P946,472.96 for the vice mayor post. Labella spent three years ago P211,619 of his own money to run for vice mayor. He spent close to a million pesos in this year’s exercise to run for mayor.
The Comelec has to assume the submitted reports are truthful because it didn’t find any questionable spending during the campaign period.
What one could decipher from the underspending was that it raises the need for the Comelec to have a more effective mechanism to monitor spending to ensure that elections are fair for all candidates.