Comelec to Marcoleta: Explain alleged inaccuracies in SOCE

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will ask Senator Rodante Marcoleta to explain his alleged inaccurate disclosure of contributions in his statement of contribution and expenditure (SOCE) in the 2025 elections, according to Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia on Wednesday.

Garcia said that the Comelec’s Political Finance and Affairs Department, which is responsible for reviewing and validating election candidates’ SOCEs, will issue the show cause order (SCO) to the senator next week.

“For everyone to have a venue, explain, and at the same time, for Comelec to look into documents, we will issue a show cause order,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.

READ: Comelec: Marcolera may be asked to explain non-disclosure of poll contributors

Garcia noted that as Marcoleta’s SOCE and statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) are publicly available, the poll body will issue the SCO to have “complete transparency and accountability.”

“For us, we saw that the expenditure declared is the actual expenditure. As to where they came from, that’s what we want to find out,” Garcia said.

“Because Section 99 of the Omnibus Election Code states that candidates must declare their expenditures and donations, especially if the expenditures and contributions happened during the campaign period,” Garcia noted.

Garcia said that there must be an explanation as to why some information allegedly does not match in Marcoleta’s SALN and SOCE.

In an interview with Net25, Marcoleta was asked why his expenditure in his SOCE is much higher than his declared assets. His SOCE that can be found on the Comelec website showed that his campaign expenditure is worth P112,857,951.44 while his assets found in his SALN amount to P80,401,700.

Marcoleta said that he did not publish in his SOCEs some contributions he received from his friends upon their request to remain anonymous. A quick look in his SOCE showed that his declared contributions are zero.

“They (donors) only have one request, which is not to disclose their identity,” Marcoleta said in Filipino.

READ: Election bets with wrong info in SOCEs may face criminal raps – Garcia

Marcoleta also said that he had to spend the contribution because his friends trusted him to run for senator.

“Because I can’t disclose their identity, that’s why I listed zero in contribution. I will be forced to make it zero because if I put an amount, I will be forced to disclose their identity,” Marcoleta added.

Meanwhile, Garcia said that all kinds of donations must be declared, especially when they were received during the campaign period. He also clarified that upon the issuance of the SCO, the Comelec will look into the explanation regarding Marcoleta’s case, and not the liability that may arise.

“We will see, we will balance the evidence found against our documents just like others, we will see if we have to file cases or set it aside because there is no basis on this issue,” Garcia said.

Garcia earlier shared that any candidate who is found not to have disclosed the right information in SOCE may face perjury, falsification of public documents, and election offense with one to six years of imprisonment.

The Inquirer has reached out to the camp of Marcoleta for his comment and has not received any response as of this writing. /cb