ADMINISTRATION-ENDORSED Christopher “Bong” Go was the top campaign spender among the seven winning 2019 senatorial candidates who submitted their Statement of Contribution and Expenditure (SOCE) the earliest.
Based on his submitted SOCE at the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the former presidential aide spent P161,418,299.31.
Among the senatorial candidates who lost, the top spender was former Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas with an expenditure of P179,193,153.04—even higher than Go’s.
Go was able to pay for his campaign expenses after being able to get P162,035,537.34 worth of contributions. Of these, P155,038,000 were cash contributions, while the remaining P6,997,537.34 were in-kind.
Former presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino was the second-biggest campaign spender with P159, 169,836.54.
He was able to accumulate P115,575,235.21 worth of campaign contributions. Senator-elect Grace Poe came in third place in terms of campaign spending after shelling out P156,433,463.80 for her campaign.
The total contribution she got for her second senatorial bid amounted to P156,450,000.
In fourth place was senator-elect Cynthia Villar with P135,529,061.09.
To note, Villar’s campaign was self-financed after she registered no contribution in her SOCE.
Rounding up the three remaining early bird SOCE filers with biggest spending expenditures are senators-elect Ramon “Bong” Revilla with P121,952,358.93; Pilar “Pia” Cayetano with P73,714,198.55; and Maria “Nancy” Binay with P56,785,472.82.
As of 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Comelec’s Campaign Finance Office (CFO) was already able to get the SOCE of 28 senators and 91 party-list groups.
The deadline for the filing of SOCEs is June 13, 2019.
Noncompliant winning candidates will not be allowed to assume their posts until they submit their SOCEs within six months from their proclamation.
All SOCE filers will be made to pay administrative fines depending on
their
positions.