The Commission on Elections is looking to assess campaign expenses of candidates for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections (NLE) once they have filed their certificates of candidacy (COC).
Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the plan is included in the reforms they would want to implement in the forthcoming polls.
“One of the reforms we would like to do is for computing campaign expenses. Majority of us (commissioners) agree that once the candidate files their COC, the clock starts ticking for campaign finance so all expenses should be counted from the time immediately upon submission of the COC,” she said.
Under the law, candidates should submit Statements of Contributions and Expenditures within 30 days after the elections.
Guanzon said they are also planning to include election advertisements on social media in their assessment.
“We are looking for a way to compute ads through social media. That’s one big project that I would like to see done before I retire in February next year, because we cannot regulate the use of social media. We don’t have the technology for that. But I think we can compute the expenses if Facebook or Twitter will help,” Guanzon said.
She believes elections next year will be different since there is a pandemic.
“It is an election like no other because the rules of the game must change. The method of campaign will be to change. There’s a lot of reliance on social media as campaign platform which is difficult for Comelec to compute in terms of campaign expenses. We are hoping that experts will be able to help us with that,” she added.
The poll body set the period for the filing of COCs from Oct. 1 to 8. – PNA
April 19, 2024
