Race winners submit false poll expenses By Marie A. Surbano 06/12/2010

Questionable, ridiculous election spending statements from some candidates—Comelec Race winners submit false poll expenses By Marie A. Surbano 06/12/2010 The incoming Aquino government appears to be starting with the practice of lying, or perjuring itself, based on some of the statements on campaign expenses submitted by both winning and losing candidates that have been found to be highly questionable. Such statements on election expenses are sworn to by the candidates themselves and duly notarized which makes the issuance of false statements a crime of perjury. The Commission on Elections (Comelec), through its spokesman James Jimenez, said that some of the statements of contributions and expenditures submitted by winning and losing candidates in the May 10 national and local polls are questionable and the Comelec is now eyeing to tap the examiners from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Commission on Audit (CoA) to help the Comelec in auditing the statements of expenditures and contributions submitted by the candidates in the recently concluded May 10 polls. “So far, the findings are general... Some of them are outright questionable, or even ridiculous in some cases,” Jimenez stressed.  He added that some of the candidates claimed that their expenses were far less than what one would expect, considering the high rates of print and television advertisements nowadays. “For example, in the television ad campaign, everyone has a good idea how much a TV ad campaign would cost. But now you see a report that comes in that the cost is less than 65 percent of what is the expected cost, even factoring in all the various discounts that the candidates are supposed to get,” the Comelec official said. However, Jimenez declined to identify the concerned candidates. There was no need to identify the candidates who spent hundreds of millions in advertisements, such as President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, who promised an “honest and transparent” government under his presidency. It will be recalled that just on the TV advertisements, groups and organizations, including the Comelec, checking on the advertising frequencies of presidential and vice presidential candidates, showed that Aquino had exceeded his time limit in ad exposures in ABS-CBN network—on his so-called personal funds, along with his party funds. The same went for Nacionalista Party standard bearer, Manuel “Manny” Villar, who also had exceeded his advertising frequency allowed by the Comelec.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100612hed1.html

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