Comelec orders Chiz: Explain 2022 donation

Accountability seems to be catching up with former Senate president Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who was asked yesterday to explain the P30-million donation he received from a top flood control contractor, Lawrence Lubiano of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., during his 2022 senatorial campaign.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has issued a show-cause order to Escudero to explain the campaign donation.

Comelec chairman George Garcia said the poll body’s directive was transmitted to the legislator on Friday.

Garcia said the Escudero hearing was set for 13 October. Escudero welcomed the Comelec’s move.

Lubiano had admitted during a House hearing that he donated P30 million to Escudero’s campaign. However, the businessman claimed the funds came from his personal account, not his company’s.

Apart from Escudero’s long career in the Senate, which began with his first seat in 2007, he also sought the Vice Presidency during the 2016 election, running alongside Senator Grace Poe, who was then running for President.

According to the Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SoCE) Escudero submitted to the Comelec in 2016, he received a total of P322,567,073.63 and spent P321,014,827.64 of it.

Garcia said the Comelec will determine if the P30 million donation from Lubiano violated Section 95 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), which prohibits contractors or entities with government projects from contributing to political campaigns.

Garcia, who had earlier denied singling out Escudero, said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte were among those being investigated by the poll body for alleged illegal donations in their 2022 campaign.

An earlier report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) alleged that Marcos and Duterte received tens of millions of pesos in campaign contributions from public works contractors despite a provision in the OEC that prohibits those seeking public office from accepting donations from entities that do business with the government.

The Palace said Marcos is willing to face an investigation over the reported contributions.

Senate hearings suspended

Meanwhile, the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on the anomalous flood control projects will be suspended for the meantime, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III confirmed on Saturday, 4 October.

“But once we agree on the proposals, we will put them on the floor,” Sotto said in a Viber message.

Asked what would happen to the invitations to former House speaker Martin Romualdez and resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co., Sotto said they were still in talks.

“It is still being discussed,” he said.

Last week, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee, said he would send out invitations to Romualdez and his colleagues while awaiting developments in the case and before scheduling the next hearing.

“For the next committee hearing, we will send an invitation to [Co’s] address. Now we know he is abroad and will not show up. If that is the case, we will issue a subpoena, and then a show-cause order,” Lacson said in a TV interview.

He said that this would show that they were “not covering up for anyone.”

“If the show-cause order is not satisfactory, we will cite him in contempt of the committee and issue a warrant for his arrest,” Lacson said of Co.

In the case of Romualdez, Lacson said the invitation will be coursed through House Speaker Faustino Dy “in observation of the time-honored inter-parliamentary courtesy between the two houses of Congress.”