The Commission on Elections provincial office reminds all candidates in the recently-held polls who have not withdrawn their candidacies before the campaign period to file their Statement of Contribution and Expenditure from May 14 to June 13.
The candidates are to submit 3 hard copies of their full, true, and itemized SOCEs that include an original signature and be notarized. They are also required to submit a soft copy of their SOCE in excel file, and scanned copy of their notarized SOCE that is to be compiled in a CD and submitted to the Provincial COMELEC office.
Failure to comply will subject the non-winning candidates to administrative fine ranging from P1,000 to P30,000. They will also commit at least one violation against Article 10 (Electoral Contributors and Expenditures) provisions of the Omnibus Election Code that are included as election offense, and 2 violations lead to disqualification.
Winning candidates, meanwhile, are given a maximum of 6 more months to comply but they won’t be able to enter their office unless their SOCEs are submitted and failure to do so in the allotted time will lead to the declaration of the position to be vacant. All late filers are given penalty and every mistake adds up P1,000 on their fines.
The COMELEC assures that the SOCEs will be accurate due to the following factors: it will be filed under oath, the people who have contributed in the campaign are required to submit a Report of Contributions, Media entities are also obligated to submit a Summary of Advertising. This gives COMELEC grounds to make sure the data submitted are accurate.
As of May 28, only two SOCEs were submitted.
“Ang lagi natin ina-advise sa mga kandidato natin na wag naman sila mag-file ng last day kasi may cases na may kulang pa sila o may problema pa yung SOCE nila, wala na silang time para ayusin,” said Provincial COMELEC Election Assistant II Jomel Ordas.