Comelec Manila to check SOCE

CEBU, Philippines — The head of the provincial Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Cebu has emphasized that it is their central office in Manila that evaluates all Statement of Contribution and Expenditures (SOCE) to determine whether a candidate has committed campaign overspending during the May 13 elections.

Lawyer Jerome Brillantes, Cebu provincial acting election supervisor, told reporters Friday that the SOCE’s of provincial candidates filed before the Comelec-Cebu office will first be submitted to the regional office.

The Comelec regional office in Central Visayas will then forward all the documents submitted from the four provinces to the head office’s Campaign and Finance department.

Brillantes said this unit would be the one to check all the SOCE’s whether the candidates have filed all the needed documents and, most importantly, to ascertain whether candidates have exceeded the allowable expenses.

All documents of the 48 provincial candidates (governor, vice governor, congressman, and board member) in Cebu were in when the submission of SOCE’s closed last Thursday.

The number of provincial candidates has reduced to 48 with the death of one gubernatorial candidate Roliveth “Boyet” Cortes and the withdrawal of congressional candidate Alfie Pepito.

Among the 48, Governor-elect Gwendolyn Garcia had the highest campaign expenses that amounted to P4.518 million.

The lowest campaign fund – P9,000 – was of Paulus Mariae Cañete, who failed to win as board member of Cebu’s Sixth District.

The others that reached the P1-million mark in expenditures include winning candidates Vice Governor-elect Hilario Davide III (P1.065 million) and Congressman-elect Pablo John Garcia (P1.092); and the losing candidates, gubernatorial candidate Agnes Magpale (P1.215 million) and congressional candidate John Henry Osmeña (P1.846).

Meanwhile, the Comelec officials and election officers who were earlier reshuffled will return to their original posts by Monday.

Brillantes, who served here temporarily for six months and 10 days, said he will miss the significant events here and the encounters with the active Cebu media.

He said he will also never forget the challenges he met here like dealing with the peace and order situation in the election watch list areas and the bigger scope he had to cover and oversee.

He said some may have doubted his capacity to handle Cebu which has 53 cities and municipalities especially that he came from a small province in Siquijor that only has six towns. — GAN (FREEMAN)