Liberal Party standard-bearer and losing presidential candidate Mar Roxas asks the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for an extension to submit his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) during the May 9 national and local elections. The spokesman of LP asked the poll-body for a 14-day extension to file Mar Roxas SOCE.
The deadline of the submission SOCE finished on Wednesday but the camp of Mar Roxas failed to submit their SOCE making him as the only presidential candidate who failed to reveal his source of funds and expenses during the hotly-contested national elections which was dominated by the Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte.
In an interview with ABS-CBN, Liberal Party spokesman Barry Gutierrez said Mar Roxas asked for an extension to file his SOCE. The spokesman was quoted as saying “A request for extension was sent to Comelec today, asking for an additional 14 days within which to complete the filing for Mar Roxas and the Liberal Party. The primary reason is the voluminous number of receipts that have to be scanned and attached to the document, in compliance with the rules and in the interest of complete transparency,” he said in a statement.
At around 6:30 PM yesterday, June 8, 2016, the Campaign Finance Unit of the Comelec confirmed that it stopped receiving SOCEs at the Project Management Office of the Comelec. Only the SOCE of the former DILG Secretary among the presidentiables failed to submit their SOCE.
According to the poll body, the SOCE is a requirement of the Comelec, wherein candidates are required to declare the amount of campaign contributions received, whether in cash or in kind, and the amount spent for the campaign.
Based upon the SOCE received by the COMELEC, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago reported that he received and spent P74.6 million for her presidential bid while Sen. Grace Poe declared she spent P510.8 million for her presidential campaign. The outgoing Vice President Jojo Binay spent a total of P463,375,216.37 for his presidential campaign. The President-elect Mayor Rody Duterte, spent a total of P371.46 million for his campaign.