Category: Comelec Watch

COA under grace

Julius Mariveles Leave a comment

By Fernando Cabigao Jr.

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

SHE IS the first female head of the Commission on Audit, but that will not be the only distinction Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan will be remembered for after her term of office lapses tomorrow. Indeed, she will leave behind a trail of groundbreaking reforms in the government’s premier audit institution, even though she was its chief for only three years and nine months.

Pulido-Tan herself has told the media that she considers as her legacy the spearheading of the special audit report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel” from 2007 to 2009, during the Arroyo administration. The report has in part caused three incumbent senators to be detained and haled to court.

Started even before Pulido-Tan came to COA, the special audit sought to determine the allocation and use of PDAF and Various Infrastructures including Local Projects (VILP). It included the project implementation by the concerned government agencies and several government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Of the P29.004 billion in PDAF appropriations and P50.874 billion in VILP appropriations from 2007 to 2009, only P8.374 billion in PDAF and P32.664 billion in VILP was covered by the audit due to the improper release of funds.

The COA report helped fuel a public clamor for the abolition of pork barrel. On Nov. 19, 2013, 13 justices of the high court voted to declare the pork barrel system as unconstitutional.

After being prodded to conduct an audit on PDAF allocations under President Benigno S. Aquino III’s term, the Commission is set to release another special audit report on PDAF. This time, the report will focus on PDAF allocations and utilization from 2010 to 2013 under Aquino’s watch.

The report will also include the highly criticized Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), a mechanism devised by the Aquino government to realign savings. According to the Budget Department, a total of P144.38 billion in DAP funds was disbursed for “high-impact, quick-disbursing, and socially-responsive projects.” On July 1, 2014, the Supreme Court, in a 13-0 vote with one abstention, declared part of DAP as unconstitutional.

Pulido-Tan, of course, has her share of critics. Unsurprisingly, among them is Senator Jose ‘Jinggoy’ Estrada, who managed to take a swat at the COA chief before he was put in detention for his alleged involvement in the pork-barrel scam. In a privilege speech at the Senate, Estrada scored Pulido-Tan for, among others, what he said were her far too frequent travels abroad, as well as the lack of any mention in the special audit report of disallowances by COA, or the minimal amounts of pork it found to have been misused by Aquino’s allies in Congress. “Very clearly,” said Estrada, “Chairman Pulido-Tan failed to obey the constitutional mandate reposed on COA, and that is compliance audit focused on public accountability that disallows irregular, unnecessary, excessive, and extravagant or unconscionable expenditures or uses of government funds.”

The COA head would remain mum on that point when the media questioned her later about Estrada’s speech. She would say, however, that at least Estrada “did not deny anything…(and) did not say we were wrong about our PDAF audit.”

In any case, Pulido-Tan has implemented other initiatives aside from the Commission’s critical audit reports. She was the first COA chairperson to release publicly — online and hard copy — the Report on Salaries and Allowances (ROSA) of public officials and employees. She also went full blast with the computerization of COA and distributed computers to auditors across the nation.

Moreover, she formed a Fraud Audits Office, which accepts complaints that concerned citizens have submitted personally or online through the COA “Citizens’ Desk” button on the COA’s website.

The “Citizens’ Desk” link directs the complainants to a Public Information System where e a ticket may be created for audit and non-audit related concerns. COA has investigated a number of complaints and included data inputs from the complainants in its audit scope.

Then there is the Citizen’s Participatory Audit (CPA), which Pulido-Tan pioneered to enhance citizen participation in the public audit process. Through CPA, non-government stakeholders – CSO, private sector, community members, and academic groups – can participate in the audit of public funds and ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of public services and state programs.

CPA was launched in 2012 with funding from Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP). Pulido-Tan had already initiated the Citizens’ Desk, the first component of CPA, shortly after she was appointed Chairperson in April 2011.

Under CPA, COA taps civil society organizations or CSOs as partners to form special audit teams and conduct value-for-money audits of selected government projects. The CSOs perform non-technical duties such as data gathering, assessing of data results, and assisting in the drafting of audit reports. The thinking is that such an arrangement will help educate citizens in the audit process of public funds and encourage them to participate.

PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III converses with Augusto Lagman Commissioner of the Commission on Election (COMELEC) and Ma. Grace Pulido Tan Chairperson Commission on Audit after they were inducted into office on Tuesday (May 3) at Malacanang's Rizal Hall.(Ryan Lim/REY BANIQUET/Malacanang Photo Bureau)

PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III converses with Augusto Lagman Commissioner of the Commission on Election (COMELEC) and Ma. Grace Pulido Tan Chairperson Commission on Audit after they were inducted into office on Tuesday (May 3) at Malacanang’s Rizal Hall.(Ryan Lim/REY BANIQUET/Malacanang Photo Bureau)

Three pilot audit projects have been conducted under the CPA: the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) flood control project under the Department of Public Works and Highways; Barangay Health Centers in Marikina City; and the Solid Waste Management Project of the local government of Quezon City. At the end of the audit process, the teams drafted reports, including recommendations for the improvement of the projects. The CPA results are incorporated in the audit reports of the agencies concerned.

A CPA project was also conducted in the disaster-relief activities for Typhoon Yolanda victims. A total of six audit teams were formed to audit the construction and awarding of bunkhouses and check the implementation of the cash-for-work (CFW) program. Each audit team had one CSO partner. The CSO partner helped in the inspection of bunkhouses, survey and interview of bunkhouse recipients, and survey of CFW recipients.

Before her exit from COA, Pulido-Tan had approved the rollout of the next phase of the CPAs to focus on farm-to-market roads in Palawan, tourism roads in Region XIII, public-private partnership program on construction of school buildings, and health programs in the education sector.

As of now, the CPA program is being implemented only in selected areas in the country. Hopefully, Pulido-Tan’s successor would be able to institutionalize the CPA and have it implemented in every cities and municipalities. One problem stands in the way, however. The P5-million budget that COA had proposed under the 2015 General Appropriations Act for the operation of a permanent CPA unit in COA had been slashed by the Department of Budget and Management. DBM has explained, COA sources said, that instead of a separate amount, the CPA budget has been tucked into COA’s budget for operations.

In November 2013, the CPA program won the “Bright Spots” Award at the London Open Government Partnership Summit.

That same year, Pulido-Tan was named one of five members of the United Nations’ International Audit Advisory Committee or UNIAAC.

The UN General Assembly appoints the five IAAC members “on the basis of equitable geographical representation, personal qualifications, and experience” to serve “in an expert advisory capacity and assist the Assembly in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities.” Pulido-Tan is the external auditor of both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). – PCIJ, February 2015

 

Campaign finance excess: Bagsfull of coal for 400 candidates

mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Che de los Reyes

THEY WERE warned to watch out, and now they are bound to cry.

According to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), nearly 400 local candidates in the 2010 and 2013 elections may soon be facing charges of campaign overspending, and that could mean more than their having Christmas stockings full of coal.

Should they be found guilty, they could be barred from running for any elective position and deprived of the right to vote. They could also face jail time of one to six years without probation under the Omnibus Election Code (Batas Pambansa Blg. 881). After all, under the law, going over campaign spending limits is an election offense, which is considered a criminal offense in this country.

As of Dec. 19, 2014, Comelec’s Campaign Finance Unit (CFU) has already filed before the Commission’s Law Department 380 cases of campaign overspending against local candidates who ran in the last two polls. Out of this total, 272 ran in 2010 and the remaining 108 in 2013.

But these cases are only “the tip of the iceberg,” says CFU prosecutor Sabino Mejarito. The CFU, he says, is not yet done sifting through the volumes of campaign-finance records of all national and local candidates in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

The Unit’s current ‘naughty list’ covers only local candidates who ran for district representative, provincial, and city and municipal positions. It has yet to submit to the Comelec Law Department campaign overspending cases against candidates who went for higher posts.

Time is not on Comelec’s side, though. According to lawyer Sonia Bea Wee-Lozada of the Office of Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim, Comelec has only three months or so – or until the first quarter of 2015 — to prosecute campaign overspending cases related to the 2010 elections; May 10, 2015 marks the end of the five-year prescription period for 2010 election offense cases. This is why the CFU is focusing on prosecuting these 2010 cases first, Wee-Lozada explains.

Formed only in 2012, the CFU will have to examine the campaign finance records of candidates who ran in the 2010 polls simultaneously with those of the 44,326 candidates who ran for 17,911 positions in the 2013 elections (from senators to Sangguniang Bayan members, as well as ARMM governor, regional governor, and assemblymen).

The CFU’s 30 staffers will likely not be able to take a break during the upcoming holidays – and in the months beyond, for that matter. Consider these figures from May to December 2014 that indicate the CFU’s balance of work:

* 7,028 candidates who failed to file their Statements of Election Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) in the 2010 and 2013 elections;
* 1,059 candidates to whom notices to settle late penalty and/or correct minor deficiencies were sent;
* 331 candidates who responded to the notices;
* 115 pending certificates of compliance to be issued; and
* 959 election overspending cases that are being reviewed.

Such volume of work could make even the most cheerful Christmas elf experience depression. But Commissioner Lim himself would rather highlight the upside: Comelec’s efforts to audit campaign finance in the 2013 elections, he says, have made its mark on candidates and political parties.

“There was really an effort on the part of the candidates to complete (their submission of the SOCE),” Lim says. He adds that this was especially true in the aftermath of Comelec’s publication in December 2013 of a list of 422 elected officials, political parties, and party-list groups that did not submit their SOCEs after the extended deadline for submission on June 30, 2013. The officials on the list were also ordered to vacate their posts due to non-compliance with campaign finance rules.

After the list’s publication, the CFU found itself swamped with the deluge of submissions and payment of fines for late filing – including those from candidates whose reports were not deemed by the CFU as problematic, says Lim.

“It was a shock to the system na, uy mahigpit pala dito (that, hey, they are really strict),” the commissioner recalls. In fact, from May 9 to June 30, 2014 alone, the CFU was able to collect P3.87 million in late fines from the candidates. In just six months, or in December 2014, that amount has more than doubled into P8.1 million, according to figures shared by Lim’s office to PCIJ.

Just keeping the candidates on their toes about how they raise funds and spend for the campaign is already a big feat, especially going into the 2016 presidential elections, says Lim.

“I want to continue that we’re prosecuting so that candidates will be more aware in 2016,” he says.

The process, however, is hardly over once the CFU files a case with the Comelec Law Department. Once a case is docketed, the Law Department conducts a preliminary investigation. Based on the investigation’s results, the lawyers will then come up with a resolution stating whether or not there is probable cause. This resolution is forwarded to the Comelec En Banc, which reviews it and decides whether to dismiss or affirm it.

Cases affirmed by the Comelec En Banc are then filed before the regional trial court that has jurisdiction over the congressional district, province, city, or municipality where the individual charged with campaign overspending had filed his or her candidacy.

Interestingly, the campaign overspending case involving then Laguna gubernatorial candidate E.R. Ejercito did not go this route. This was because it actually stemmed from an election protest filed before Ejercito was officially proclaimed winner of the May 2013 gubernatorial race in Laguna.

Ejercito’s political rival, former Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis, had filed the protest. CFU then audited Ejercito’s campaign contribution and spending report, and compared this with the advertising contracts submitted by TV networks that aired Ejercito’s political ads. Based on these documents, Ejercito was found to have gone over his P4.6 million campaign spending limit by at least P19 million; his campaign ad expenses alone reached a total of more than P23 million.

In September 2013, Comelec’s First Division issued a decision to disqualify Ejercito. This was unanimously affirmed by the Comelec En Banc on May 21, 2014. Because the Comelec En Ban’c decision was deemed executory, Ejercito was asked to vacate his post immediately. A stand-off lasted several days before Ejercito finally stepped down on May 30, 2014. He was replaced by Vice Governor Ramil Hernandez.

Ejercito filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which has the power to reverse the Comelec’s decision. Last Nov. 25, however, the Supreme Court upheld the Comelec’s decision to disqualify Ejercito for campaign overspending.

Ejercito’s disqualification case was administrative in nature. As to his criminal liability for campaign overspending, Wee-Lozada says that the CFU is currently in the process of “collating documentary evidence in relation to the criminal complaint.”

“The quantum of evidence required is higher for criminal cases,” she says. “Hence, we want to be very thorough and meticulous in the preparation of the complaint.”

COMELEC can stir-fry initiative versus pork

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

THE PEOPLE’S initiative versus the pork barrel might fail if the current Commission on Elections will count the votes during a referendum for the approval of a law that would ban the fund.

This was the warning of Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, one of the speakers during the Luneta rally yesterday, August 25, that launched the national campaign to gather six million signatures to outlaw the use of lump-sum appropriations for lawmakers and the President.

“Matagal ng panahon na hindi marunong magbilang ang COMELEC (The COMELEC does not know how to count for a long time),” Cruz said.

The prelate, also a critic of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and one of the Church leaders supporting the people’s initiative, pointed out that “even if the six million signatures are gathered then there would be a referendum then the counting of votes, tapos na ang kwento (it’s all over),” he added.

The COMELEC is a constitutional body under the 1987 Freedom Constitution and is supposed to enjoy a high level of independence but controversies have hounded it even after the Marcos dictatorship. The most recent serious scandal involved President Arroyo and former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who allegedly led the rigging of votes for the former Chief Executive.

“To destroy an institution like the Commission on Elections (Comelec), you must first fill it up with handpicked commissioners with questionable credentials and even more dubious impartiality. Then, let them run the constitutional body as if they were ruling over personal fiefdoms. This would then reduce middle-level bureaucrats to mere vassals doing — or forced to do — their every bidding, including perhaps, as the taped conversations involving President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano suggest, rigging the elections in their political benefactor’s favor.”

Read more in our 2005 i-Report special issue, “The COMELEC’s fall from grace: What went wrong with the Comelec?“

Aside from the scandals involving its officials, the COMELEC also committed “mistakes.”

“The Commission on Elections has a lot to account for, with some of its “mistakes” running into billions of taxpayers’ pesos. Ironically, some of its costliest errors had started out as a means to improve the election process and minimize voting irritants.”

Read more of these fiascos in “Sins of the Commission.”

Comelec’s 424: Negligence or ignorance of election laws?

mcmangahas Leave a comment

By Malou Mangahas

SOME OF the 424 public officials who had earned dishonorable mention in the list of those who failed to file or filed bad election spending reports have complained about a few things.

“OA” or overacting, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has described the call of Commission on Elections (Comelec) for these officials to vacate their posts, pending their correction or submission of their Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE).

Batangas Gov. Rosa Vilma Santos-Recto had wished for due notice, insisting that she had filed her SOCE and even received a certificate of submission from the local Comelec.

Comelec had said her SOCE submission was “deemed not filed” because another person, not the governor herself, had signed it.

Yet there are those who saw in the Comelec’s initiative to strictly enforce campaign finance rules good, firm signals at reform.

Prof. Leonor Magtolis-Briones, lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines and former national treasurer, notes in the officials’ adverse reactions a general distate for or unwillingness to be held accountable, or even to follow the law.

Transparent, open, and accountable elections should be every Filipino’s favorite thing, whether powerful or powerless.

Going by a string of Comelec resolutions and issuances on campaign finance, it seems like negligence or ignorance of the law — on the part of these public officials — may in fact be the real problem.

Failure to sign their SOCEs themselves is the Comelec’s case against a big number of the winning candidates, including Governor Recto.

And why should this be a problem? As far as the Comelec and elections go, candidates — and not ever their lawyer or other representatives — are the parties of interest, the responsible persons.

The candidates should have known better than to delegate this duty to their deputies. They didn’t know better, or the candidates want to shirk responsibility for whatever information they enroll in their SOCEs about who gave them money, and how they spent it, to get to power.

Could the Comelec file suit against the candidates’ deputies who signed their SOCEs? Not at all.

In truth, from the moment they filed their Certificate of Candidacy (COC), all the candidates signed and swore to, among others, “file, within 30 days after election day his true, full, and itemized SOCE.”

This much in clear in Comelec Resolution No. 9518 on the filing of COCs for the May 2013 elections that the en banc promulgated on Sept. 11, 2012 yet.

Another Comelec issuance, Resolution No. 9476, spelled out the “Rules and Regulations Governing Campaign Finance and Disclosure” for the May 2013 elections and subsequent elections.

Promulgated on June 22, 2012, its Section 4 on “Persons authorized to incur election expenditures” says:

“No person, except the candidate, the treasurer of the party, or any person authorized by such candidate or treasurer, shall make any expenditure in support of or in opposition to any candidate or the party. Such expenditures, if duly authorized, shall be considered as expenditure of such candidate or party.”

When parties not authorized to incur expenses sign on to SOCEs, how can the candidates and the treasurers of political parties be made to own up to the truth or falsity of their SOCE claims?

Yet another provision of Resolution No. 9476 is more than explicit due notice — as explicit could get — to the candidates on the “Effects of Failure to File Statement.”

It states: “No person elected to any public office shall enter upon the duties of his office until he has filed the statement of contributions and expenditures herein required. The same prohibition shall apply if the party which nominated the winning candidates fails to file the statement required herein within thirty (30) days from the conduct of election.”

It continues: “Winning candidates shall be issued a certificate of submission immediately upon filing of their statements of contributions and expenditures, a copy of which they must submit upon assumption of office.”

And then the clarification that could be helpful advisory — given 19 months ago yet — to Governor Recto: “Said certificate shall only attest to the receipt of the statement but not as to the veracity of its contents.”

The Comelec included her in the list of 424 winning candidates who failed to file or filed deficient SOCEs because she did not sign her SOCE herself.

This much is clear: The duty to file SOCEs, and the responsibility for its contents, are not matters that candidates and parties may delegate to non-parties in elections.

Resolution No. 9476 has also spelled out a table of penalties for candidates with deficient SOCEs.

It states: “Failure to file statements or reports in connection with the electoral contributions and expenditures as required herein shall constitute an administrative offense for which the offenders shall be liable to pay an administrative fine ranging from One Thousand Pesos (PhP1,000.00) to Thirty Thousand Pesos (PhP30,000.00), at the discretion of the Commission.”

If at all, this is the most lamentable aspect of Comelec’s recent initiatives to enforce campaign finance laws. For what is clearly serious infraction of election laws, all that errant candidates must do is pay fines, according to a graduated scale of fees pegged on rank of office.

Second offenders might meet with stiffer penalties though. The Comelec resolution says that apart from stiffer fines o P2,000 to P60,000, “for the commission of a second or subsequent offense… the offender shall be subject to perpetual disqualification to hold public office.”

By all indications, this first-ever effort by the Comelec to enforce campaign finance laws to the letter is most commendable. For a change, people in power are now under scrutiny for failure to follow, know, or even read the letter of the law. Negligence or ignorance of the law indeed excuses no one. To the last, they courted our votes and gave their word that they would uphold and defend the laws of the land.

Yet still, the Comelec’s list of 424 officials who failed to file or filed deficient SOCEs results from its audit of only the form, not yet the content, of election spending reports. More surprises from the Comelec, and maybe more distressing news for errant candidates, should be more welcome.

All the citizens would do well with a Comelec serious about the role that integrity institutions must embrace — “comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”

Comelec: 20 solons, 4 governors, 26 mayors must vacate posts

mcmangahas Leave a comment

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.

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