EDITORIAL - Accommodation

After accommodating the administration party and extending its own “non-extendible” deadline, the Commission on Elections should expect no respect for its orders. In previous elections, the Comelec had already seen candidates taking advantage of a loophole in election rules that allowed them to ignore the deadline for filing the statement of contributions and expenditures or SOCE.

To put an end to this, the Comelec issued Resolution 9991 on Dec. 16 last year, setting June 8, 2016 as the “final and non-extendible deadline” for filing the SOCE, or 30 days after the May 9 general elections, as required under Republic Act 7166.

Major political parties, their standard bearers and running mates complied and met the deadline – except for team daang matuwid. And the Comelec, bending over backwards, broke its own resolution and agreed, extending the deadline to June 30 for all candidates, with penalties waived for late filers.

The 4-3 Comelec vote prompted Christian Robert Lim to quit as head of the poll body’s Campaign Finance Office. Lim has lamented that with the extension of the deadline, the Comelec has undermined its own mandate. It has not helped that among the commissioners who voted for an extension was Rowena Guanzon, the former mayor of Cadiz City whose appointment to the poll body was reportedly endorsed by Liberal Party stalwarts.

Comelec officials have pointed out that apart from LP standard bearer Mar Roxas, five senators, 150 congressmen and 40 governors would be covered by the SOCE “amnesty.” But where does this leave the thousands of other candidates who exerted effort to meet the deadline? Even Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who is battling stage four cancer, managed to comply with the deadline set by law.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista reportedly voted for an extension of the deadline, but with fines imposed. The poll body, however, voted to let everyone off with no liability for breaking a law.

For its part, the LP should realize the damage this case is inflicting on the party. The LP is no fly-by-night group organized merely for one election; it is one of the nation’s two most durable political parties. Although the LP is crumbling from the usual post-election desertions by turncoats, the party has survived wars and several leadership changes. The party counts freedom fighters and democracy icons among its members. It should not want itself to be seen as a party that gets special treatment when it is in power.