MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Thursday the Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) submitted by candidates, party-list groups, and political parties in the May 12 elections may be posted online next week.
In an online interview, Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said they are just waiting for the approval of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on the program that will be used for the posting of the SOCEs.
"A few weeks ago, we contacted DICT. The DICT needs prior consent and approval for our program. The program for publishing SOCE is still in DICT at the moment," he said.
Garcia said they are hoping to get the approval by Friday.
"Hopefully by tomorrow, they will give the go-signal so that by next week we can put SOCEs one by one. It is no different from what we did with the COC (Certificate of Candidacy) when we published it," the poll body chief said.
The Comelec will post the SOCEs online for the public to scrutinize them.
"This is where the vigilance of our people is needed. Aside from political rivals, the ordinary constituents will be able to check their SOCEs. It is everybody's obligation," Garcia said.
"This is why we want the SOCEs published so that everyone can check if the candidates are hiding anything."
The law only allows candidates to spend PHP3 for every registered voter during the campaign period, while political parties and party-list groups may spend PHP5 for each voter.
The deadline for the filing of SOCEs was on Wednesday.
Based on Comelec data, 61 out of the 64 senatorial candidates, including the 12 winners, filed their SOCEs. Meanwhile, 141 out of 154 party-list groups and 25 out of 28 political parties have also filed their respective SOCEs.
At the local level, 126 out of the 1,657 congressional candidates, 47 out of 230 candidates for governor, 41 out of 196 candidates for vice governor, and 325 out of 610 candidates for provincial board member have filed their SOCEs as of 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
At the city/municipal level, 939 out of 3,748 candidates for mayor, 909 out of 3,472 candidates for vice mayor, and 7,285 out of 31,302 candidates for councilor have complied with the requirement.
Garcia said the Comelec’s Political Finance and Affairs Department would audit all the SOCEs submitted by the candidates. (PNA)