Category: Money Politics

Deadline Approaching: Basic Investigative Reporting Seminar

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PCIJ’s Basic Investigative Reporting Seminar: Political Clans, Governance, and Journalists’ Safety

Open to mid-career and senior Filipino journalists, citizen media, and bloggers
Researchers, anchors, producers, editors, news managers, freelance reporters, contributors, and stringers of print, TV, radio, and online media may apply. Citizen media and bloggers covering public policy issues are also eligible.

Application Deadlines and Tentative Seminar Dates:

Visayas
Application Deadline: May 17, 2013
Seminar Dates: June 27–30, 2013

Mindanao
Application Deadline: June 10, 2013
Seminar Dates: July 25–28, 2013

Luzon
Application Deadline: July 10, 2013
Seminar Dates: Aug. 22–25, 2013

NCR
Application Deadline Aug. 1, 2013
Seminar Dates: Sept. 19–22, 2013

Seminar Topics

Session 1: Media Killings, Political Violence, and the Culture of Impunity in the Philippines

Overview of media killings and human rights abuses in the Philippines; the hot spots of political violence and human rights abuse; The legal context, and international and Philippine protocols on Conflict, Human Rights, and Extra-Judicial Killings.

Panel Discussion with officials from government agencies involved in monitoring and prosecuting human rights and extra judicial killings cases such as the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Department of Justice, and the Commission on Human Rights

Session 2: Political Clans: Past and Future Links

Historical analysis of political clans and their networks in government; The connections between the rule of political clans in certain areas with development plans and the socio-economic conditions of the areas; Participation of certain political clans in the May 13, 2013 national and local elections and its implications for governance.

Session 3: The Government’s Purse: Tracking the State’s Resources

The government’s budget process, assessment of the use and spending of various lump-sum funds (e.g., PDAF, IRA), and the sources of financing available to national and local government agencies; Information and insights journalists may derive from datasets available on government websites.

Session 4: Ethics and Safety: Field and Newsroom Judgment Calls

Discussion of measures that newsrooms may implement to protect journalists, and ethical and editorial standards that media agencies may institutionalize; Practical safety tips and safe-passage techniques in high-risk and dangerous areas of coverage.

Session 5: The Fundamentals of Investigative Reporting

Investigative methods and tools that could be used when studying political clans, governance, and extra-judicial killings.

Session 6. Tracking the Investigative Trails

  • Practice Set A. The Paper Trail: Understanding, Connecting, and Organizing Documents and Databases — a “show-and-tell” session of the different types of documents useful for journalists doing in-depth reports on political clans and governance.
  • Practice Set B. The People Trail: The Art of the Interview — mock interviews and critique session

Session 7: Putting the Story Together

Various techniques to make a complicated and data-driven story accessible to citizens; How an investigative report can be translated for broadcast (TV and radio) or rendered on multimedia platforms.

Workshop: Pitching Story Ideas and Developing Story Plans

Funding

The PCIJ will cover:

  • Round-trip transportation from the participant’s place of work and/or residence to the seminar venue.
  • Board and lodging during the seminar.

The PCIJ will also provide a modest fellowship grant for story proposals that will be approved during or immediately after the seminar.

Application Requirements

  1. Completed application form with two references (see attached .doc file).
  2. One or two samples of work discussing public policy, development, human rights, or governance issues.
    • For print and online: link to the stories or attach copies of stories in Word or PDF
    • For TV and radio: link to the broadcast story, or attach script or story concept/treatment

Successful applicants will be notified within 10 working days after deadline.
The seminar graduates will be accorded priority slots in the subsequent Advanced Investigative Reporting Seminars that PCIJ will conduct in 2014.

Sending your application:

By email:
Email address: training@pcij.org
Please state ‘Application to Basic IR Seminar’ on the subject line

Note: We will acknowledge receipt of all submissions. If you do not receive any reply within three working days, please resend your application and move a follow-up email or call (02) 410-4768.

By fax:
Telefax: (02) 410-4768
Please write ‘ATTN: PCIJ Training Desk’ on the fax cover sheet

Note: After faxing, please call (02) 410-4768 to confirm if all the documents had been transmitted successfully.

By mail:

The Training Desk
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
3/F Criselda 2 Bldg., 107 Scout de Guia St.
Brgy. Sacred Heart, Quezon City 1104

Note: We will acknowledge receipt of mailed applications via email or text.

Questions?
Please contact the PCIJ Training Desk at (02) 410-4768 or training@pcij.org

Through combined onsite and field learning sessions, the seminar aims to enhance the participants’ investigative reporting skills and practice, and offer a framework for analyzing media killings and safety issues in the context of governance, the culture of impunity, and the presence of political clans and private armed groups in many parts of the country. The seminar also seeks to highlight the role of the police and the Commission on Human Rights as vital sources of journalists.

The seminar will feature lecture-discussions and workshops to identify potential risks and practical safety tips when covering dangerous assignments. A Story Development Workshop will give participants an opportunity to pitch story proposals that the PCIJ may consider for fellowship grants and editorial supervision.

Experts from the academe, national media organizations, the police, human rights agencies and organizations, and data repository agencies will lead the discussions.

This seminar series draws support from the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The wealth of public officials, the weal of voters: Mismatch?

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WHO ARE THE RICHEST elective officials of the Philippines, and who, the poorest?

Did they rise to greater affluence or fall to greater penury over the years?

And, is there a match or mismatch between the wealth of public officials, and the weal of the people they serve?

We have 10 days to go before the vote on May 13, 2013 so we better check it out now.
MoneyPolitics, a citizen’s resource tool on elections, public funds, and governance in the Philippines, may be of some assistance.

Click on its Public Profiles tab to learn about the numbers enrolled in the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) that top elective officials had filed, and subscribed and swore to as the facts of their wealth.

This tab offers full profiles on the wealth of the president, vice president, and senators.

Just as important this tab reveals the net worth of the party-list and district representatives, and the governors and vice governors of Philippine provinces.

These data came from the SALNs that PCIJ secured from the Office of the Ombudsman and other repository agencies.

But another tab, Elections and Governance will lead you to the lists of candidates in the 2013 elections and the voter turnout in the 2010 elections that PCIJ obtained from the Commission on Elections.

A page within this tab offers the latest socio-economic stats for the provinces, based on data from the National Statistical Coordination Board and the National Statistics Office, among other public agencies.

Why tap into these tabs?

The first, Public Profiles, might give us an initial KYC (Know Your Candidate) experience. Nothing wrong per se about candidates being rich but it is absolutely wrong in law for public officials to enrich themselves while in office.

The second, Elections and Governance, could give us our composite picture as communities, the living and working conditions of our people. It points to some bright spots, and many dark corners, in our country. It tells us what those aspiring to get elected on May 13, 2013 should address or speak about.

More than song and dance routines, perhaps we should demand that candidates tell us exactly how they intend to serve us better.

MoneyPolitics, a data journalism project of PCIJ, is just a click away.

MoneyPolitics now online: Surf on!

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TODAY, World Press Freedom Day, PCIJ welcomes you all to MoneyPolitics.PCIJ.org, a citizen’s resource, research, and analysis tool on elections, public funds, and governance in the Philippines.

MoneyPolitics, the boldest venture yet of PCIJ into the realm of the unknown and the intractable — big data, open data, and data journalism — started with a simple dream.

Few big, serial donors betting on poll bets since ’98
Check out our latest report on MoneyPolitics Online!

The pool of donors of the national candidates in the Philippines remains an exclusive club of a few big donors who come from old elite families, big business entities, affluent law firms, and even some parties who have secured contracts and appointive positions with the government, a PCIJ review of public records on the last five elections reveals.

Even fewer still are the repeat donors and families of donors who may be called the frequent spenders or high rollers in national elections since 1998.

In contrast, the number of citizens donating small amounts to the candidates — either out of faith in the politics or policies that the latter espouse, or for benign or self-serving reasons — remains negligible.

Five years ago PCIJ had wished: Could we build an online platform of all the stories, source documents, and data files, the vertical and the horizontal, in hard and soft copies, and from both public and private sources, that the PCIJ has amassed through the years?

Could we develop a more layered, more interactive, more current i-site.ph, one bigger by depth and breadth of source documents, and with relevant hyper local data on all our towns and cities?

Could we put in an online databank all the editorial, research, training, and multimedia portfolio of the PCIJ and offer it as possibly a good journalistic record of politics and governance since 1989, the year PCIJ was born?

And so, as is usual with the PCIJ’s multitude of 11 staff personnel, we set down to hard work.

Step 1 involved auditing and organizing our content so we know what we could upload, and by what order of priority.

Step 2 led us to long hours of scanning, digitizing, and aggregating our content by time period, format, source, and policy focus.

Step 3 prompted us to acquire more source documents to bridge gaps in data. That meant repeated visits to and multiple requests filed with many public agencies so they would to give us more documents.

Step 4 entailed encoding and repurposing raw source documents into datasets in excel or spreadsheet formats that allow analysis, sorting, and stringing up with other datasets.

Step 5 required the entry of tech and platform architects who could help scrape, script, and render the datasets in an online platform.

Our initial harvest, of which only a small portion is now uploaded on MoneyPolitics, is a massive cache of documents — 57 gigabytes of unique datasets on about 6,500 public officials, and on public finance, governance, and elections, dating as far back as 1998.

Many more steps later, MoneyPolitics is now online. It is a project that has tested the limits of our patience and skills, and in the case of some staff members, put on hold or on second priority, relationships with lovers and loved ones; or in the case of one, the search for a boyfriend; and for another, plans to have a baby.

MoneyPolitics is not the story of the PCIJ, however. It is the story of Philippine government and politics, in the last two decades told in data, digits, and documents.

It is big data on an online platform that the PCIJ hopes could serve all citizens a resource, research, and analysis tool.

It is an online tracker, roadmap, and virtual archive of the public records most vital to promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in government.

Just as important, PCIJ built MoneyPolitics to promote the Filipino citizen’s right to information and meaningful participation in governance.

MoneyPolitics connects the dots, loops in the stats, and the backward and the forward links, of stories that form the core of PCIJ’s work — how government spends public funds; the wealth of elective and appointive officials; campaign finance and elections; public contracts and contractors; politics and political families; and progress and regress in the national household. In gist, how money drives and defines policy and governance in the country.

Why is PCIJ so hinged on data and documents, you might ask.

In truth, PCIJ is obsessed with them because we believe they could help foster a few public goals we deem important for good journalism, good citizenship, and good governance to take firm root.

The first is numeracy. We like to boast that the literacy rate of Filipinos — simple, not functional, literacy — is among the highest in the world.

Many of us are not as numerate, however. We generally scorn or stay away from numbers. We write stories swimming in sound bytes and with just a dab of context data. A majority of us journalists would readily admit that we went into J school because it requires only one Math class, or sometimes none at all

But the most critical issues that impede good governance and development in the Philippines are issues writ large in numbers. Through MoneyPolitics, PCIJ hopes to vest numbers with more value and meaning when we write about our people.

The second goal we wish to promote is good recordkeeping in all our public agencies. Good recordkeeping, it is said, is a pillar of good governance. MoneyPolitics afforded us ground-level interaction with the people and agencies holding public records, and from these, a few observations have emerged.

Some public agencies are better and smarter at keeping records, and more open about sharing these on request of the media. Some public agencies have tons of time-series datasets kept up to date but other public agencies are not even aware these exist.

Archiving, organizing, updating, and sharing data between and among public agencies, and with the citizens and the media — these open government practices have few excellent practitioners for now.

While some national agencies deserve good marks for voluntarily uploading documents online, these are typically in html, PDF or flat, and thus unsearchable or unconnected, formats. They overwhelm citizens with numbers often bereft of meaning, or hardly given to sorting and analysis. In most other agencies, however, especially those on the regional and local levels, getting documents is an activity akin to pulling molars from a toothless tiger.

PCIJ developed MoneyPolitics to serve the personal need for data of individual citizens and journalists, but not the commercial purposes of corporate and other entities. (Please read Terms of Use).

Just as important, MoneyPolitics does not intend to replace the work of government or strip its agencies of their mandate and duty in law to uphold transparency and to respect the people’s right to know.

To be sure, MoneyPolitics is a project with many conspirators.

They include all the writers, editors, researchers, fellows, and support staff who had served with PCIJ from its birth in 1989.

PCIJ could not acknowledge enough the work of its founding executive director, Sheila S. Coronel (now director of the Tony Stabille Center for Investigative Reporting at Columbia University in New York); the late Alecks Pabico, PCIJ’s “self-taught” and first multimedia director; former PCIJ deputy executive director Jaileen Jimeno and former PCIJ librarian Ogie Sarmiento, who took the first steps in building the PCIJ digital library; and Cecile C. A. Balgos, whose razor-sharp pen never fails to lend polish to PCIJ’s editorial work.

PCIJ’s current team works hard and well precisely to deserve their legacy. Through MoneyPolitics, we wish to honor their work.

Credit for what MoneyPolitics is today goes singly and together to Karol Ilagan, PCIJ research director; Markku Seguerra, PCIJ platform architect; Rowena Caronan, PCIJ researcher-writer; Ed Lingao, PCIJ multimedia director; Miguel Gamara, PCIJ librarian; Fernando Cabigao Jr., PCIJ researcher-writer; and Charmaine Manay and Rosemarie Corpin, PCIJ part-time researchers.

MoneyPolitics would not have been born without the appropriate provisions budgeted by PCIJ admin manager Dona Lopez and her deputy, Yoly Nicolas.

The work of our training and writing fellows continues to inform MoneyPolitics. In turn, MoneyPolitics could further inform the seminar-workshops that PCIJ conducts through its training director Che de los Reyes, and her deputy, Edz de la Cruz.

PCIJ multimedia producer Cong Corrales and his partner Ed Lingao have also produced a video documentary on the making of MoneyPolitics.

Most important of all, PCIJ would like to thank the Open Society Foundations (OSF) for believing in our dream, and for being gracious enough to help make it happen. In 2011, the OSF extended a $100,000-grant across three years for PCIJ to develop MoneyPolitics, the online resource tool.

What next? MoneyPolitics is a work in progress. We are proceeding on to Stages 2 and 3 to assure a steady fresh harvest of data sets, full profiles of local elective officials, and more hyper local content on all the provinces, towns, and cities of the Philippines.

A demand-driven access to information initiative, an experiment in ground-up development of an online database of public records, a data journalism project — that is PCIJ’s MoneyPolitics Online.

We hope to share the experience and help replicate it in public agencies that are repositories of documents, in agencies vested with integrity and good governance mandates, and among civil society groups or schools with advocacies and practice hinged on data and documents.

A fuller, deeper MoneyPolitics 2.0 or even 3.0 in 2016? We could not stop dreaming of better things to come. Please help us make it happen again.

For now, happy surfing, everyone!

Take a quiz, journey back in time

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TAKE a quick quiz and trace the steps we took as a nation.

Data in chunks are among the featured content of MoneyPolitics, a citizen’s information, research, and analysis tool on elections, public funds, and governance in the Philippines.

A data journalism project of the PCIJ, MoneyPolitics promotes twin goals: uphold the citizen’s right to know and to access documents in the custody of public agencies, and help foster transparency and accountability in government.

Anytime soon, MoneyPolitics will go online.

But first, take a QUICK QUIZ from MoneyPolitics:

Question: Who is the longest serving member of the Senate since the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolt?

a. Joker P. Arroyo
b. Edgardo J. Angara
c. Juan Ponce Enrile
d. Franklin M. Drilon

Answer: b
Senator Edgardo J. Angara is the longest serving senator in the post-EDSA Senate. He has been elected to four six-year terms. In 1998, he ran for vice president but lost.

Or, retrace the past in TRACKBACK:

Question: What do Elpidio R. Quirino, Ramon F. Magsaysay, Carlos P. Garcia, Diosdado P. Macapagal, and Ferdinand E. Marcos all have in common?

Answer: All five were elected in the month of November. From 1947 to 1971 — after the recognition of Philippine independence and before the proclamation of Martial Law — Filipinos voted on the second Tuesday of November of the election year.

The 1973 Constitution ruled, however, that the regular election of members of the national assembly was to be held on the second Monday of May. But it was only after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolt when general elections started to be held on the second Monday of May. It continued on in the 1987 Constitution.

Of pork, donors, spending caps: ‘Polspeak’ and Senate wannabes

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BEFORE THE official campaign period started, the PCIJ interviewed a majority of the candidates for senator on money matters.

We asked them to take a stand on pork barrel, the use of public funds, campaign spending limits, how they plan to fatten their campaign kitty, and how they will deal with donors seeking rent or favors.

We thought it important to put them on the record on money-in-politics questions that are a reference of integrity, character, and purpose — and how they intend to do right by taxpayers’ money, once elected into office.

PCIJ Research Director Karol Ilagan, PCIJ researcher Rowena F. Caronan, and PCIJ interns Kia Obang and Romina Tapire conducted the interviews on Jan. 25, 2013.

What follows are nuggets of “PolSpeak”, a featured content in MoneyPolitics.PCIJ.org, the PCIJ’s latest data journalism project. A citizen’s resource, research, and analysis tool on elections, public funds, and governance in the Philippines, it goes online soon!

ON PORK BARREL:

Senatorial candidate Margarita Cojuangco (United Nationalist Alliance):

“There is nothing wrong with the pork barrel as long as it’s used the way it’s intended to be. In fact, expectations are so great, it’s not only constructing of the bridge or the road, it’s even the money for people, for constituents who come and say, ‘We don’t have money to go home,’ ‘We don’t have any money for the doctor,’ ‘We don’t have any money for the education of our children.’ As long as it’s used wisely, it’s audited properly, then I think it’s necessary. I’m not gonna be a hypocrite.”


Senatorial candidate Samson Alcantara:

“If it (pork barrel) will be intended for the good of the people, I will accept that. But I will not beg for it… Halimbawa may pork barrel, pero kapag iipitin yan ng executive upang makiusap ka o sumuko ka sa kanila, I will not beg for that.”

Senatorial candidate Marwil Llasos:

“(K)apag senador ka o kongresista ka, ang trabaho mo ay legislative. You have nothing to do with the executive functions. Kung gusto nilang makialam sa proyekto ng gobyerno ay huwag silang mag-senador, mag-congressman, mag-secretary sila ng DPWH. Kasi ang function ng isang senador o congressman, tatlo yan: legislation, investigation and education. Walang binabanggit sa batas na kasama diyan ang pagiging kontratista.”

Senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel (Team PNoy):

“Dapat ang PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), ginagastos ayon sa desisyon ng ordinaryong mamamayan.”

“I’m for the abolition of the pork barrel system. Kasi pinagmumulan siya ng korupsyon at saka patronage. Ngayon, habang hindi pa na-abolish yung system na ‘yan, dapat ang PDAF ay ginagamit sa transparent na paraan. Pangalawa, dapat ang PDAF, ginagastos ayon sa desisyon ng ordinaryong mamamayan.”

Senatorial candidate Teddy Casino (Makabayan):

“It should be abolished as it is. Kung meron mang mga projects na gustong ipasok ang congressman para sa distrito niya, o ang senador para sa kung saan, dapat ito ay dadaaan sa regular budget procedure, naka-line item ‘yan sa budget. Kasi ang problema natin ‘yung lumpsum na wala ka pang naiisip na project may P70 million ka na. Bahala ka kung ano’ng gusto mong gawin. ‘Yan talaga ang source ng problema at ‘yan ay nagagamit sa pulitika ng executive as a carrot and stick sa legislative, so better i-abolish na ‘yung ganyang sistema.”

Senatorial candidate Bal Falcone (Democratic Party of the Philippines):

“Senators and congressmen are just supposed to be legislators. They are not supposed to be part and partially executive kaya nagkakaloko-loko ang bayan natin because the legislators who are supposed to just focus on solving poverty in the country are also exercising executive functions. And this being unaudited, a lot of corruption comes in, a lot of government money is wasted.”

ON USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS:


Senatorial candidate Grace Poe-Llamanzares (Team PNoy):

“Kahit na anong pera, MOOE man ‘yan o pork barrel, kung ‘yan po ay pinagkatiwala sa iyo, hindi ‘yan para sa personal mong paggamit.’Yan ay para sa taong bayan. Nagayon, simple lang naman po kasi yung mga pork barrel na yan, kung ikaw ay gumawa ng kalsada, makakabuti yan sa iyong mga constituents. Pero tama nga rin po ‘wag naman ilagay ng napakalaki ang pangalan mo doon, walang kwenta naman ‘yun.

Senatorial candidate Grace Poe-Llamanzares:

“So, kahit po sa MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) noon, panukala namin na magkaroon ng advisory sa simula ng bawat show para bigyan busina ‘yung mga magulang. Pero maraming nagsasabi na ‘Ma’am, pwede mong ilagay ‘yung mukha mo dyan na ang MTRCB director,’ ‘Pwedeng boses mo ang gamitin diyan o by order by MTRCB chairperson, ganyan.’ Hindi ko nilagay ‘yun kasi sabi ko, ‘Teka muna ibig sabihin kung wala na ako sa MTRCB at tatanggalin n’yo na yan, hindi na ninyo pwedeng gamitin, gagastos na naman kayo. So ganun lang naman po kasimple, konting delicadeza.’

ON CAMPAIGN SPENDING LIMITS:

Senatorial candidate Bal Falcone:

“That’s good, that’s good… The Democratic Party of the Poor (DPP), we cannot even afford one TV advertisement, which costs P200,000 per 30 seconds like Hanep Buhay or something like that… But we go along because our advocacy truly represents the interest of the poor and we are uniting all the poor people in all the several regions of the country. We go through our financing campaign through contributions because we give or we get from our membership, which is increasing by leaps and bounds by the way — only P100 for a life-time membership in DPP.”

Senatorial candidate Eddie Villanueva (Bangon Pilipinas):

“Pabor ako sa less expensive election campaign eh. Kasi unang-una, ang Bangon Pilipinas ay binubuo ng mga volunteers. Wala naman tayong budget na katulad ng ibang political parties. Ang puhunan lang natin, pagmamahal sa Diyos, pagmamahal sa bayan. Kaya more policies which are designed to make elections less expensive, I’m always for the democratization of the election process.”

Senatorial candidate Ramon Montano (Independent):

“That does not bother me because we have been limited… as far as exposure is concerned, kaming mga independent, walang partido kasi wala kaming pera. We cannot even pay for anything. So we are very happy now, ngayon lang kami na-i-interview.”

Senatorial candidate Francis Escudero (Team PNoy):

Okay lang. ‘Yung 120 minutes caps sa TV, 180 minutes caps sa radio. Hindi rin naman namin malamang mauubos ‘yun dahil sobrang mahal ng airtime. In fact, bilang mo sa limang daliri mo sa isang kamay ‘yung mga kandidatong kayang gumastos ng ganyang kalaking pera. Ang question lang namin is, sa Internet, hindi pa marahil nakakaabot ang teknolohiya para tunay na ma-monitor ng Comelec ang paggamit ng Internet at limitahan ito.”

Senatorial candidate Rizalito David:

“For us poor candidates, it doesn’t really matter. I know it would not sit well (with) many of the networks but I think the political ad ban should be restored.”

“May mga kandidato, lalo na may mga pera, ang hinahabol nila, kaya sila nag-i-insist ngayon na mas marami dapat ‘yung airtime because they do not intend to be scrutinized. Because they want na puro political ads na lang, ‘yung mga three 30 seconders. What can you say in 30 seconds, ‘di ba? That is not being true to the people who will be electing you — na binoto ka lang kasi nag-stick sa mind nya ‘yung 30-seconder na palatastas mo. Hindi tama ‘ yan. That is unjust.

And I want to stress it. It is an unjust way of campaigning. People should hear what you are supposed to say, what you have in your mind and in your heart, particular to the issues that is confronting our people. Hindi pwede ‘yun, na mananalo ang isang kandidato because of his 30-seconders, ‘di ba?”

Senatorial candidate Teddy Casino (Makabayan):

“Importante talagang maghigpit ang Comelec para matiyak that there is a level playing field for all candidates, and we support itong efforts ng Comelec. Ang question lang is that — ‘yan ba talaga ‘yung masusunod, will they be able to enforce that, and will the candidates comply?”

Senatorial candidate Gregorio Honasan (UNA):

“Tama po lang ‘yun. Sa akin, kahit anong amount basta ayon sa batas, basta’t maipatupad, ma-enforce parang walang nakakalamang, walang nadedehado. Dahil alam mo naman na galing ‘to sa mga tulong, sa contributions. Basta’t accounted for ito, matapos ang campaign period, meron ‘yang talaan yan, accounting and auditing procedures para makasiguro na walang lumabag sa batas.”

ON CAMPAIGN DONORS and FUND-RAISING:

Senatorial candidate Bam Aquino (Team PNoy):

“‘Yun ‘yung taya nila, eh, tumataya sila sa ‘yo.”

“Nakaka-humble talaga when people donate to you, whether it’s a few thousand or more… And we’re going to declare all of these naman ‘no but yung point ko lang naman dito is, it’s really very humbling when people, you know, donate to your campaign because kumbaga ‘yun ‘yung taya nila eh, tumataya sila sa ‘yo. So… it’s a humbling process, at the same time nakakataba rin ng puso that people believe in you, enough to share with you their hard-earned resources ‘no?”

Senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri (UNA):

“Marami naman pong tumutulong sa atin. Along the line sa pagiging isang mababatas marami po tayong natutulungan ng mga adbokasiya at mga industriya, ay tumutulong naman po sila, lalu-lalo na kung maganda ang adhikain mo ay marami naman pong tumutulong. Kahit papaano, maliit man o malaki may tumutulong naman.”

Senatorial candidate Margarita Cojuangco (UNA):

“I’m running to serve and I’m not running to spend money that I know that I can save for my children… So if the Comelec sets a certain amount na hanggang diyan lang ‘yung gastos mo, well then good para maintindihan ng lahat ng mga botante that hindi kami bangko, you know, kung ano ‘yung budget naming pareho sa lahat.”

“You know, me being a housewife, I like to budget my money, ‘di ba? You know, it doesn’t make a difference whether you sell in the market or you’re a teacher, everybody has to live on that budget. And you know if I spend too much I don’t know how I will get it back, so it’s really basically very unfair to me and my family. Yeah, so I;m so glad that… because, I want to spend less because I’m here to serve.”

ON DONORS DEMANDING FAVORS:

Senatorial candidate Bam Aquino (Team PNoy):

“Syempre lahat ng mga taong tumutulong sa kampanya ko, sila rin ‘yung mga tao na tumutulong kay (President) PNoy at naniniwala sa ‘tuwid na daan.’ (P)robably, ‘yung mga tao na tiwali, hindi na siguro lalapit sa kampanya namin ‘no, to be frank.”

Senatorial candidate Samson Alcantara:

“Sinasabi ko naman sa kanila kapag nanalo ako, wala tayo yung utang na loob. Ayun ang masama sa Pilpino, may utang na loob kaya nga ngayon sa senado diba, utang na loob… Hindi dapat ‘yun.”