Comelec: Complications delaying Marcoleta’s case
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia said on Wednesday they could not yet release their findings in the election campaign contributions case of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta because of “legal complications” arising from a similar case that was recently referred to its legal department by the Office of the Ombudsman.
He said the Comelec’s political finance and affairs department (PFAD) already had a recommendation following its probe of Marcoleta’s Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (Soce) for the 2025 elections.
Marcoleta had declared in his Soce that he did not receive any campaign contributions. But he admitted in a television interview last year that he did receive some contributions although he did not list them in his Soce, as required by law, because the donors wanted to remain anonymous.
Similarities in cases
Garcia told reporters that the complaint against the senator was filed last year before the Office of the Ombudsman by poll watchdog Kontra Daya and the group Advocates for Public Interest Law. According to the complainants, Marcoleta committed perjury under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code.
“The cases are the same. The accusations are the same. The allegations are the same,” Garcia said. “Can we consolidate, combine it? Or should the treatment be different?”
“In the same manner, should the upcoming disposition of the law department serve as a basis for the PFAD? Because whatever recommendation the PFAD makes, it will have to go through the office of the law department,” he added.
Garcia said it would not be ideal to combine the two cases because the PFAD and the law department serve two different functions, with one office providing the recommendations while the other handles the trial.
“But now it’s all in one office,” he noted. “I’m sorry but this is what caused the complication.”
