Arroyo, 19 solons, 4 governors told by Comelec to vacate posts

List includes Govs. Ejercito, Vilma Santos, Singson of Ilocos Sur, Espino of Pangasinan

MANILA (PhilAmPress) – The Commission on Elections has ordered 424 elected officials led by former President and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and 19 other congressmen to vacate their posts for failure to submit their full statements of election contributions and expenditures.
A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report indicated that Vice President Jejomar Binay may have also failed to comply with the Comelec reporting but the Comelec announcement did not include him. 
Aside from Arroyo, other members of the House of Representatives told to leave their posts are Manila Reps. Zenaida Angping (NPC, 3rd district) and Trisha Bonoan-David (NUP, 4th district), Rodolfo Biazon (LP, Muntinlupa City), Ronaldo Singson (NP, Ilocos Sur), Enrique Garcia (NUP, Bataan), Ma. Victoria Sy-Alvarado (NUP, Bulacan) and Arthur Robes (LP, San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan).
Also being ordered to vacate their posts are four well known governors, namely Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto (LP), Pangasinan Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr INPC)., Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Luis Singson (NUP), and, Laguna Gov. Emilio Ramon ‘ER’ Ejercito (UNA).
Pasay City Mayor Antonino Calixto was also included in the list of those told to vacate their posts.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr announced the poll body’s decision and directive to vacate in a press conference Thursday.
Other congressmen ordered to vacate their posts were:
1. Eileen Ermita-Buhain (Lakas) Batangas
2. Nelson Collantes (LP) Batangas
3. Leandro Dong Mendoza (NPC) Batangas
4. Wilfrido Mark Enverga (NPC) Quezon
5. Romeo Acop (LP) Antipolo City, Rizal
6. Joel Roy Duavit (NPC) Rizal
7. Al Francis Bichara (NP) Albay
8. Sal Fortuno (LP) Camarines Sur
9. Herny Oaminal (NP) Misamis Occidental
10. Nancy Catamco (LP) North Cotabato
11. Arnulfo Go (NUP) Sultan Kudarat
12. Pangalian Balindong (LP) Lanao del Sur
Brillantes said they have coordinated with the Department of Interior and Local Government and the office of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to enforce the order.
All senators have submitted their SOCE, Brillantes said.
Arroyo’s chief of staff, Raul Lambino, however, said that the former President has complied with the Comelec reporting. “She has filed and we have the received copies of her SOCe for the 2013 elections!!!” he said, adding that he also forwarded Arroyo’s certificate of compliance.
Biazon, a former senator whose son has just resigned as Customs Commissioner, said the Comelec had no basis to disqualify him as he had filed his SOCE and would be sending a copy of his certification of compliance to prove this.
In Zamboanga City, meanwhile, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will run after candidates who failed to report their election expenses to the bureau in the last two elections.
Revenue District Officer Crecensio Agad said that only about one percent of the candidates in the May 10 national elections and the November 25 special barangay polls submitted their election expenses report.
Agad said that all candidates are supposed to pay five percent withholding tax of the expenses they incurred in the election.
In this city, there were a total of 72 candidates who ran in the May 10, 2013 local elections and 2,929 in the special barangay election held last November 25.
“We are decided to penalize candidates who failed to file their statements of expenditures in the last two polls,” Agad said.
He said the candidates were properly informed about their obligation to file expenses because this is a requirement the law and all them are aware of it.
He said the deadline for the submission of statement of expenses is on December 26.
Agad said he requested from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) a copy of the list of candidates who ran in the last two elections this year.
The Philippine Center of Investigative Journalist (PCIJ) has made its report on the Comelec decision. The full PCIJ report follows:
At least 20 congressmen, four governors, and 26 mayors elected in May 2013 should promptly vacate their office for failure to submit reports on their donors and expenditures within deadline and according to the prescribed forms, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc ruled this week.
In all, Comelec said 424 newly elected legislative and local officials — including 169 from the Liberal Party led by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III and 44 from the National Unity Party (NUP) that is allied with the LP — should stay out of office until after they have
submitted the appropriate Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE).
In separate letters sent Wednesday, December 11, 2013, Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim requested House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny’” R. Belmonte Jr. and Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel “Mar” A. Roxas II to order the 20 representatives and 404 local officials to vacate their respective posts until they have fully complied with the law on filing of SOCEs.
Lim, chairperson of the Comelec Campaign Finance Unit (CFU) Ad Hoc Steering Committee, also furnished Belmonte and Roxas separate lists of the 424 officials under their administrative supervision and the CFU’s findings on the deficiencies in their SOCE submissions.
Thus far, the CFU has only reviewed the SOCEs form-wise and has yet to assess the veracity of information enrolled in the SOCEs.
Aside from the 169 LP winning candidates and 44 NUP winning candidates with SOCE deficiencies, there are also 39 candidates from the Nacionalista Party (NP), 33 independent candidates, 31 from the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), 29 from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) led by Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ C. Binay, and 17 from the Lakas-CMD party in the Comelec list of 424 officials that must vacate their posts.
Of the 424, a third or 155 did not file SOCEs at all, while 269 others submitted deficient SOCEs, prompting the Comelec CFU to declare these as “not filed” at all.
Of the 155 who did not file SOCEs, four are congressmen who are the President’s allies: Manila Rep. Trisha Bonoan-David, Bulacan Rep. Ma. Victoria Sy-Alvarado, Camarines Sur Rep. Sal Fortuno, and Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong.
Bonoan-David and Sy-Alvarado are NUP members, while Fortuno and Balindong are LP members.
Meanwhile, the four governors who must vacate their offices because of SOCE deficiency findings by Comelec are Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Luis Singson, Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr., Laguna Gov. Emilio Ramon ‘ER’ Ejercito, and Batangas Gov. Rosa Vilma Santos-Recto.
Espino of NPC did not submit a SOCE; Singson of NP and Santos-Recto of LP did so, but not according to the prescribed form. Ejercito submitted only three of the 10 annexes that compose the SOCE.
On September 26, 2013, Comelec’s First Division had also ruled to disqualify Ejercito for breaching the lawful spending limits that candidates for local positions may incur.
The rest of the 269 candidates who filed deficient SOCEs failed to either personally sign their SOCE or use the prescribed forms, in violation of the provisions of Comelec Resolution No. 9476 or the campaign-finance rules issued on June 22, 2012.
Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Lakas and former senator Rodolfo Biazon of the Liberal Party are among the 104 candidates who did not personally sign their SOCEs. Both Macapagal-Arroyo and Biazon are now members of the Lower House, the former representing Pampanga and the latter, Muntinlupa.
Republic Act No. 7166 or the Synchronized Elections Law requires all candidates and the political party that in the elections to file with Comelec full, true, and itemized SOCEs within 30 days after election day. The law also states that winning candidates will not be allowed to assume office until they have submitted their SOCEs.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that Comelec signed with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on March 14, 2012 requires winning local candidates to furnish DILG with a certification from Comelec that they have duly submitted their SOCE. Without the certification, they are not supposed to be allowed to take their oath of office.
Comelec Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr., Commissioner Lim, and the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, signed the MOA.
The five-page MOA states that “before administering an oath of office to any winning candidate or allowing a winning candidate assumption into office, the DILG or any of its attached agencies shall require him or her to present a Certification from the COMELEC that he or she have satisfactorily complied with his or her obligation under Section 14 of Republic Act No. 7166 by filing his or her Statement of Contributions and Expenditures with the COMELEC. Absent this Certification, the winning candidate cannot enter into the execution of his or her office pursuant to Paragraph 2 of the same provision of law.”
According to a Comelec CFU lawyer, some winning candidates had actually requested a certification from Comelec field offices, but the CFU is not aware if DILG has enforced the MOA and refused the assumption of a winning candidate without the certification.
The Comelec said the 424 winning candidates had various SOCE deficiencies:
* Did not submit SOCE, 155 candidates
* Did not personally sign SOCE, 104
* Did not use prescribed form, 165
By position, the Comelec CFU said the following officials also either did not file SOCEs or filed deficient SOCEs:
* 278 councilors;
* 48 city board members;
* 35 vice mayors;
* 26 mayors;
* 20 representatives;
* 11 provincial board members;
* 4 governors;
* 1 assemblyman; and
* 1 vice governor.
By region, the Comelec CFU said CALABARZON (Region IV-A) had the biggest number of officials with SOCE deficiencies, followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and Eastern Visayas (Region VIII).
Data on the regions and the number of winning candidates with SOCE deficiencies follow:
* Region IV-A (CALABARZON), 66 candidates
* ARMM, 64
* Region VIII (Eastern Visayas), 51
* Region X (Northern Mindanao), 39
* Region IX (Zamboanga Peninsula), 33
* Region III (Central Luzon), 28
* Region VII (Central Visayas), 25
* Region II (Cagayan Valley), 23
* Region VI (Western Visayas), 20
* Region XII (SOCCSKSARGEN), 16
* Region I (Ilocos Region), 15
* Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 14
* National Capital Region (NCR), 11
* Region IV-B (MIMAROPA), 7
* Region V (Bicol Region), 6
* Region XIII (Caraga), 4
* Region XI (Davao Region), 2
By political party, 315 or 73 percent of the 424 candidates with deficient SOCEs ran and won under the banner of national political parties, namely LP, NUP, LP, NOC, UNA, Lakas/Lakas-CMD, and the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino of ousted president and now Manila Mayor Joseph E. Estrada.
The Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) have only one winning candidate each with SOCE deficiencies, and the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), 2.
By political party spread, data on the winning candidates with SOCE deficiencies follow:
* Liberal Party (LP), 169
* National Unity Party (NUP), 44
* Nacionalista Party (NP), 39
* Independent, 33
* Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), 31
* United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), 29
* Lakas/Lakas-CMD, 17
* Bukidnon Paglaum Party (BPP), 14
* No political party indicated, 11
* Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (BAKUD), 8
* Bagumbayan-Volunteers For A New Philippines (B. BAYAN-VNP), 7
* Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), 6
* Kapanalig at Kambilan Ning Memalen Pampanga (KAMBILAN), 2
* Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), 2
* Aksyon Demokratiko (AKSYON), 1
* Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), 1
* Kusog Agusanon (KUSOG), 1
* Laban, 1
* Lapian ng mga Kaibigan ng Kaunlaran-Bayan ng Hagonoy (Lapiang K), 1
* Maguindanao Reform Party (MRP), 1
* OMPIA Party, 1
* Partido Abe Kapampangan (PAK), 1
* Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), 1
* Partidong Pagbabago ng Palawan (PPP), 1
* Sulong Zambales Party (SZP), 1
* United Negros Alliance (UNEGA), 1
These errant candidates are still being encouraged to submit their SOCEs, even belatedly, says the Comelec CFU lawyer. If they will still not comply, Comelec shall review their submission history and recommend the applicable penalty.
Candidates who have failed to file SOCEs for two elections may face a stiffer penalty, however. Under Comelec rules, a case for their perpetual disqualification from running in any elective post may be submitted against these candidates