Comelec identifies 21 contractors who possibly made campaign donations

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has identified a total of 21 contractors who possibly engaged in prohibited campaign donations during the May 2025 elections.

“As of today, there are now 21 contractors who may have contributed to the campaign of candidates – senators or congressmen, in the 2025 elections,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in a radio interview yesterday.

Garcia said that once they are able to finish examining the 2025 Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs), they will immediately report this to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“We will have the DPWH confirm if how many of these are contractors, and are they really public works contractors. After that, we will write them and ask for their explanation,” the poll chief said.

Garcia pointed out that the list of 21 contractors doesn’t mean 21 candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives or party-list.

“For example, one senatorial candidate could have received donations from three to four contractors. The ratio is not one is to one. It is possible that these (21) represent only six or seven candidates,” he said.

The official said they will later make public the names of these candidates when the DPWH confirms the identities of the contractors.

A few days ago, Garcia said the Comelec found only nine potentially prohibited contributors in the 2025 polls.

He said the investigation on possible prohibited campaign contributions among 2025 candidates is being done by its Political Finance and Affairs Department (PFAD).

Garcia added they expect the probe on 2025 SOCEs to be completed within two weeks.

The Comelec-PFAD previously identified 55 potentially prohibited contributors in the 2022 polls.

Of the total, 54 contractors are still subject to the verification of the DPWH if they had existing government contracts at the time of the 2022 elections.