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MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections admits it cannot punish Sen. Rodante Marcoleta for hiding P75 million in campaign donations from his sworn election filings, even though its own investigation found he violated disclosure rules and the lawmaker had openly admitted to doing so on television.
That was the upshot of a 6-0-1 ruling by the Comelec, according to its resolution dated March 18. The commission adopted the recommendation of its political finance and affairs department to absolve the senator of an election offense while simultaneously acknowledging that he did not comply with Section 109 of the Omnibus Election Code.
Comelec Commissioner Rey Bulay himself acknowledged the poll body has its hands tied by a tangle of outdated laws. Pressed in an interview on Storycon on Wednesday, March 18, on whether Marcoleta truly faces no sanction at all, Bulay explained:
"Sa amin po, I'm afraid to say na wala, kasi kailangan po kami sumunod sa batas. Hindi naman ho kami ang gumagawa ng batas," Bulay said.
(For us, I'm afraid to say no, because we have to obey the law, we're not the ones making the law.)
The Comelec, he said, had no choice — the laws it enforces are "vintage 1985," and no longer fit for the needs of the time.
In the same ruling, the Comelec ordered complaints filed against Marcoleta's three donors — Michael Tan Defensor, Joseph Varias Espiritu and Aristotle Baluyut Viray — for failing to submit their own reports of contributions.
The individuals who gave the money face possible prosecution. The senator who took it, spent it and hid it does not.
Chairman George Erwin Garcia inhibited from the case.
Context of the Marcoleta SOCE case
The case dates to November 2025, when Marcoleta appeared on his Net25 program and was asked about a mismatch in his campaign finances. His SOCE for the May 2025 polls listed zero contributions but campaign spending of P139.9 million — nearly triple his declared net worth of P51.96 million.
His explanation was that certain friends had donated to his campaign but wanted their names kept out of it. He later told the Comelec, in a verified position paper filed in January 2026, that he received P75 million from Defensor, Espiritu and Viray on three separate occasions around Jan. 11, 2025.
The official campaign period for national candidates did not begin until February 11. That one-month gap gave Marcoleta the legal opening he needed.
The Peñera doctrine, and all about 'timing'
Marcoleta's defense rests on a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that had nothing to do with declaring campaign donations.
In Peñera v. COMELEC, the high court reversed the disqualification of Rosalinda Peñera, a mayoral candidate in Sta. Monica, Surigao del Norte, was penalized for holding a motorcade the day before the local campaign period began. The Supreme Court ruled that under Republic Act 9369, a person who files a certificate of candidacy only becomes a "candidate" once the campaign period starts.
Marcoleta's lawyers took that doctrine and applied it to P75 million in donations. Since he received the funds before February 11, Marcoleta was not yet a candidate. Since he was not yet a candidate, the money could not be a campaign contribution. And since it was not a campaign contribution, he had, supposedly, nothing to declare on his SOCE.
"It's a prerequisite that he be a candidate," Bulay said on Storycon on Wednesday. "But when he received it, he was not a candidate, and it was not yet the campaign period."
Bulay acknowledged that the purpose of the donations was clearly in support of Marcoleta’s Senate bid. “Clear ang purpose (The purpose is clear),” he said.
But the timing means the donation could not be formally classified as a campaign donation, the Comelec commissioner said.
"We can't advance the timeline when he received the donation... When he received it, he was not a candidate, and it wasn't even the campaign period," Bulay said, adding: "We're not the ones making the law."
Why falsifying a SOCE is no longer a crime
The Comelec's own investigation found that Marcoleta should have reported the P75 million. The resolution states that "it is with more reason that respondent should have reported the said contributions because it funded his campaign."
But the commission concluded it could not treat the violation as an election offense.
In 1991, Congress passed Republic Act 7166, the Synchronized Elections Act. Section 39 repealed the inclusion of Sections 105 through 112 of the Omnibus Election Code in Section 262 — the provision that classified those violations as criminal election offenses. Among the sections removed was 109, which requires candidates to file full and itemized SOCEs.
Comelec Chair George Garcia also explained yesterday that today, a candidate who does not comply with Section 109 is no longer criminally liable. A person may still face fines, and permanent disqualification from office applies on a second offense.
Bulay said on Storycon that RA 7166 was passed partly because Congress at the time was "sympathetic" to barangay candidates who did not understand the SOCE filing requirements. The law downgraded the penalty to spare local officials from prosecution over paperwork.
Why do the donors face charges
The Comelec commissioner explained that when RA 7166 removed SOCE violations from the list of criminal election offenses, it did not touch Section 99 of the Omnibus Election Code, or the provision that governs campaign donors. Contributors are still required to file individual reports of contributions within 30 days of an election. Failure to do so remains a prosecutable offense.
That is why the Comelec ordered its law department to open a preliminary investigation against Defensor, Espiritu and Viray. Their obligation to report was never repealed.
“We want to make sure we don’t make any mistakes, so we will refer this to our law department for review to determine whether there are grounds to file a case or not," Bulay said.
"Hindi naman namin iniiwan na scot-free," he added.
No guardrails
The legal framework the Comelec applied to Marcoleta is essentially now available to every candidate in the country: receive donations before the campaign period begins, spend the money during the campaign period, and report nothing.
Bulay acknowledged as much. "If money, as fungible as it is, came in before the campaign period — yes, they can make use of it any way they wish and not be liable," he said in mixed English and Filipino.
The Philippines holds its next presidential election in 2028. Campaign spending has escalated sharply in recent cycles: Marcoleta, a first-term senator who placed sixth in the 2025 race, reported spending P139.9 million. Typical presidential campaigns cost multiples of that. Without changes to the law, the same loopholes will apply to far larger sums.
The Comelec's ability to police those who outright lie about donations is limited even in theory. Bulay said the commission only learned about Marcoleta's undisclosed donations because the senator discussed them voluntarily on his own television program.
"Kung wala po 'yun, hindi na po namin malalaman," he said. "Imposible po na makita ng Comelec lahat 'yun."
(If he hadn't said it publicly, we would never have known. It is impossible for the Comelec to catch all of these.)
