HOW MUCH have people donated to get candidates elected? What was the upper limit? What was the lower limit?
Fifty pesos was the lowest amount in cash donation ever that was reported to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
This was received by candidate Nicanor Jesus ‘Nicky’ Perlas III, who ran for president in 2010, from a donor named “Seth Jordan”.
It was also in 2010, however, when presidential candidate Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III and the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party received the highest amount of donation ever reported to Comelec.
Aquino received P100 million from cousin and businessman Antonio ‘Tonyboy’ Cojuangco.
Lakas-Kampi-CMD received P100 million in two tranches from businessman Emmanuel ‘Noel’ Oñate, who acquired AirAsia Airlines and renamed it Asian Spirit (now Zest Airways) in 1995, during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos, Lakas-Kampi-CMD chairman emeritus.
For more information on campaign donors, browse PCIJ’s MoneyPolitics.