ILOILO City – All candidates – winners and losers – in the recent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections have until June 13 to submit their Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE), or risk being perpetually disqualified to hold public office.
The filing of SOCE is a must, according to Western Visayas acting election director Tomas Valera.
Election winners will not be able to assume their posts if they fail to file their SOCE, he warned.
The commission of a second or subsequent failure to file the SOCE would render the offender ineligible to hold public office for life, said Valera.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 6 expects 114,385 candidates in the recent polls to submit their SOCE.
The SOCE form may be secured from various city and municipal election offices, said Valera.
It may also be downloaded from the Comelec website.
In the recent barangay and SK polls, a candidate is allowed to spend only up to P5 for every registered voter.
The SOCE would help the Comelec determine if the candidates followed this cap in campaign expenses.
Election winners found to have exceeded the cap may be disqualified from holding their posts.
Comelec’s Campaign Finance Office (CFO) published on its website on April 13, 2018 a list of candidates declared with finality by the Commission as perpetually disqualified to hold public office due to repeated failure to file their SOCE after elections.
“We have always said that the barangay is where the public directly experience our government. Therefore, our frontline public officials must be sterling exemplars of upright, law-abiding citizens to the public whom they pledge to serve,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.
Section 14 of Republic Act 7166 (An Act Providing for Synchronized National and Local Elections and for Electoral Reforms, Authorizing Appropriations Therefor, and for Other Purposes) states: “Every candidate and treasurer of the political party shall, within 30 days after the day of the election, file in duplicate with the offices of the Commission the full, true and itemized statement of all contributions and expenditures in connection with the election.”
Even disqualified candidates should file their SOCE if they still want to run for public office again, said Jimenez.
Comelec-6’s Valera revealed the other day that 27 candidates who won in the barangay and SK synchronized elections were actually disqualified from joining the polls.
“As long as you filed your certificate of candidacy, you must file your SOCE,” said Jimenez./PN
