The consultative committee (Con-com) mandated to review the 1987 Constitution is pushing for the creation of a citizen-financed democracy fund that political parties and candidates can tap for their campaign expenditures during elections.
Con-com Spokesman Conrado I. Generoso on Thursday said the panel is adding a new provision under the article on suffrage, political rights and political parties in the draft constitution.
The proposed section is intended to regulate political contributions and campaign financing, which the committee believes is one root of corruption.
To address unequal campaign funding and lack of transparency during elections, the Con-com wants to create a citizen-financed treasury—dubbed the “democracy fund”—that can be accessed by political parties and candidates for their campaign needs. Citizens and corporations can pour money into the fund, which, in turn, will be managed by the government.
“The Con-com is proposing the creation of a democracy fund, where contributions from citizens, business organizations or anybody else will be made tax deductible. [This is to] encourage our citizens to participate, to contribute [to election procedures] with whatever they can afford, and for businesses’ contribution to be transparent and for them to be given tax credit,” Generoso said in a media briefing.
The democracy fund, he added, will be administered by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and will be monitored by the Commission on Audit. It will be apportioned to political parties and candidates, including independents, during the election period.
Filipino individuals can chip in P10,000 to P100,000 to the treasury, while corporations are allowed to contribute as much as P3 million.
Generoso admitted there is no clear formula yet as to how funding will be allocated to candidates. The Con-com will most likely include an annotation to this provision in the draft constitution to guide the Comelec in crafting the implementing rules and regulations of the treasury.
As for individual contributions, the Concom spokesman said citizens can directly donate it to the Comelec. Another option, however, is for individuals to indicate how much of their income taxes do they want to be allocated to the democracy fund, parallel to what the United States has been practicing.
“When you file your ITR [income tax return] in the US, there is a box there asking if you want to contribute to the federal election fund. If you say yes, the next question is how much. When you say it’s $500, it doesn’t mean you will take out $500 from your pocket and you will give it to [authorities]. What it means is if you paid $5,000 in taxes for the year, the integral government will take out $500 of your taxes and bring it to the federal election fund,” Generoso explained.
“What we are encouraging here is, instead of giving directly to the candidates, you give it to a common fund so that everybody can benefit. It is like you will not favor one candidate, and will, instead, favor a slightly equal playing level for all the candidates,” he added.
Political parties wishing to avail themselves of the democracy fund should be registered with the Comelec.
Aside from creating the poll treasury, the Con-com is also requiring the federal Congress, should the country completely transition to federalism, to revise and update existing laws on campaign finance, contributions and expenditures. Generoso said the panel believes election laws must be made tougher to ensure foreign entities and governments, religious groups and illegal activities will not be able to contribute to campaign funding and influence the elections.
According to Generoso, the draft constitution is now 95-percent to 98-percent complete. He said only two articles are up for review—federated regions and transitory provisions—which the panel intends to finish before the weekend.
The Con-com is also confident it is on track to submit the draft constitution to President Duterte on July 19—the committee’s self-imposed deadline.
However, Con-com Chairman Reynato S. Puno is making a run to turn over the proposed highest law of the land before July 19 so as to give President Duterte at least two weeks to review it before his third State of the Nation Address.
Regional consultations on the contents of the new constitution will begin on Monday. The first leg of the nationwide consultations will be in Dumaguete.