MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday said it has no plans yet of reviving the investigation on the campaign donations received by Senator Rodante Marcoleta after the case was dismissed months ago.
This statement came after the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon filed complaints of plunder and three counts of indirect bribery against Marcoleta over the alleged campaign donations to him worth P75 million.
READ: Plunder, bribery raps eyed vs Marcoleta over P75M campaign donation
Nevertheless, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said that the poll body is “ready to coordinate” with the Office of the Ombudsman.
In March, the Comelec en banc adopted the recommendation of the poll body’s Political Finance Department (PFAD) to terminate the motu proprio investigation after finding that Marcoleta did not commit any election offense regarding his campaign contribution disclosure.
“With regard to the revival of the case, the Comelec has not thought of it yet. The poll body did not receive any Motion for Reconsideration regarding the case,” Garcia said in a statement.
PFAD’s probe stemmed from Marcoleta’s statements in an interview with Net25 last year when he was asked why his expenditure in his Statement of Contribution and Expenditure (Soce) was much higher than his declared assets.
Marcoleta said that he did not declare contributions upon the request of his contributors to remain anonymous.
READ: Comelec: Marcoleta didn’t commit poll offense in campaign contributions
While the Comelec en banc agreed with PFAD’s disposition that non-disclosure of the required information in Soce is considered an election offense under the Section 262 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), it noted that the Section 39 of the Republic Act (RA) No. 7166 or the Synchronized National and Elections Act repeals the Section 109 of the OEC as an election offense.
The Comelec en banc then approved the PFAD’s recommendation to file an election complaint before its law department for the conduct of preliminary investigation against Marcoleta’s campaign donors – Michael Tan Defensor, Joseph Varias Espiritu and Aristotle Baluyut Viray.
The three donors were being probed “due to their failure to submit their respective individual Report of Contributions within thirty days after elections.”
In the complaint of the Office of the Ombudsman’s deputy bureau, Defensor, Espiritu and Viray are also facing plunder and indirect bribery complaints.
The complaint said that the three donors allegedly donated P30 million, P25 million and P20 million for Marcoleta’s senatorial campaign.
The complainant also said that the amount Marcoleta received as donations was above the P50 million threshold for the crime of plunder.
The petitioner added that the senator failed to observe the norms of public officials under Section 4 of the RA No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.
On May 21, the Office of the Ombudsman then directed Marcoleta, Defensor, Baluyut and Espiritu to file their counter-affidavits within a non-extendible period of 15 days. /apl
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