Comelec: 21 contractors gave to bets in 2025 polls
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia said on Monday that 21 contractors made donations to around six to seven candidates and party list groups that ran in the May midterm polls.
Garcia added that they are currently investigating a total of 76 contractors who gave contributions to a candidate or party list group in the elections held this year and in May 2022.
“Hopefully before Friday, the investigation on the remaining [Statements of Contributions and Expenditures or Soce] from 2025 will be finished. Let’s see how many there will be for 2025,” he told reporters.
Section 95 of the Omnibus Election Code prohibits natural and juridical persons who hold contracts or subcontracts with the government to make contributions “for purposes of partisan political activity.”
The same provision also states that it “shall be unlawful” for any person to solicit or receive contribution from government contractors.
Garcia, however, clarified that the Comelec would need the assistance of the Department of Public Works and Highways to determine if the contractors in question had existing contracts with the government at the time they gave their donations.
Escudero case update
He also announced that the poll body’s political finance and affairs department may release a resolution in the coming weeks regarding the case of Sen. Francis Escudero and Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc.
The two earlier submitted affidavits to the poll body, which asked them to explain the P30-million campaign donation that Escudero received from Lubiano when he ran for the Senate in the 2022 elections.
Both had reasoned out that the donation was made by Lubiano in his private capacity as Escudero’s friend.
