INTERNET giants Facebook and Google may face charges from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for failing to submit documents of their transactions with six national candidates during the 2016 elections.
In a media forum, Mazna Lutzchavez of the Comelec Campaign Finance Office said the two firms did not submit the records for their ad deals with Senators Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, Gregorio Honasan, Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV.
They were also unable to produce the ad records of vice presidential candidates Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo.
SOCE proof
THIS, even after the six candidates officially declared in their Statement of Contribution and Expenditure (SOCE) their transactions with Facebook and Google.
Pacquiao spent P36,375.74 on Facebook ads, which was contracted out from Dublin, Ireland, and P728,740.75. This made him the biggest spending among the six.
However, the total cost of the boxing superstar’s ad spending online is still only around 2 percent of his P35.7- million expenditures in the 2016 polls.
He is followed by Trillanes, who spent P658,804.39 for online ads, also with Facebook Ireland Ltd.
De Lima spent P128,693.19 for her Facebook advertisements; and Robredo P110,000 also with the same company.
In the case of Marcos, he paid P450,000 for his “promotions and ad placement in the Internet,” while Honasan had the lowest spending with only P5,000 for his “social media” budget.
Lutzchavez said the records from the two firms is necessary since it will allow them to check the credibility of the submitted SOCEs.
She said the six candidates are no longer liable since they made the necessary disclosure in their SOCEs.
International matter
Complicating the matter, Lutzchavez pointed out, was the fact that some of the said transactions were done outside of the country and with multinational companies.
“We intend to file election offenses, but we are still studying the matter because of the problem of jurisdiction. The case of Facebook, for example, was processed abroad…so how to do we go about it,” Lutzchavez said.
Fortunately, she said, Facebook and Google have established local offices in the country, which makes coordination with both countries easier.
Still, both companies refuse to submit the necessary documents, even after Comelec already asked them to.
Lutzchavez said they still have some years left to hold Facebook and Google accountable for the said case since they have five years in instituting a charge of election offense.
She, however, said they hope both companies will cooperate without them resorting to filing charges.
The Comelec earlier said it is now drafting a policy on campaign financing on social media, especially as it continues to gain ground in the campaign of election candidates.
The poll body earlier admitted its current rules do not cover social media since it only started being used by candidates in 2010.