BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Hitting back against the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Singson is blaming the poll body for allegedly giving him and his brother, Rep. Ronald Singson, the wrong Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) forms which they completed.
Saying they filed the SOCE on time, Gov. Singson cited records from the Ilocos Sur’s provincial COMELEC office showing he received a certificate of compliance of filing of SOCE on June 11, 2013.
The deadline set by COMELEC for submission of SOCE was June 13, 2013.
Hence, it came as a surprise to the Singson siblings when the COMELEC ordered them and 422 other officials to vacate their posts temporarily after allegedly failing to file their SOCE on time.
The Ilocos Sur governor claimed that he religiously complied with the COMELEC rules on submitting SOCE.
“We are very much willing to comply with any rules prescribed by the COMELEC but this time the agency did not properly inform us about the changes of their forms for SOCE. Thus, it is not our fault,†he said.
So as not to repeat the same problem again in the next polls, Singson appealed to the poll body to closely coordinate with their local units to anticipate this kind of problem.
Gov. Singson vowed he will immediately settle the problem with the COMELEC office and comply with the changes in the SOCE forms.