MANILA — Disqualified Laguna Governor ER Ejercito’s camp is confident that Ejercito’s spending was well within the allowed amount and that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to prove this otherwise.
Ejercito’s counsel, Lawyer Enrique dela Cruz, challenged Comelec to present any evidence that would prove the alleged overspending of the governor during the May 2013 elections.
“The other receipts that the Comelec is referring to are not even in his name. If it is a contract with ABS-CBN, we should ask ABS-CBN to whom did they contract with? Did they contract with Governor ER? It is easily verifiable,” he said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.
He added that Ejercito only declared a total of P4.1 million for his political ads, contrary to Comelec records which amounted to P23.5 million during the campaign.
The authorized campaign limit is only at P4.5 million or only P3 for 1,525,522 voters in Laguna.
“Yes, he didn’t pay for it. It was a donation to him. However, the law on campaign finance does not mention the source of the money. What is being discussed here is how much was spent. If a donor donated P1 billion, can you spend that one billion? No. The limitation is still P4.5 million,” he said.
“If somebody prints 100 t-shirts in support of a candidate and distributes it, will the candidate be disqualified for overspending if he didn’t know about these t-shirts?” he added.
In an earlier report, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillanes however said that whether or not the ads of the candidate were donated or paid from his own pocket, the candidate can still be charged guilty of overspending.
The lawyer however insisted that before Ejercito can be disqualified, there must be a “final finding of fact” of either overspending or vote-buying and that within 30 days, the Comelec can be questioned before the Supreme Court.
Dela Cruz also added that Ejercito will not step down without an order from the Supreme Court.
With reports from David Dizon