Senator Chiz Escudero admitted it. He took P30 million from contractor Lawrence Lubiano. Then, what happened? Centerways, Lubiano’s company, suddenly started cornering billions in flood-control contracts. Mostly in Sorsogon, Chiz’s weekend backyard. 

Chiz: “I wasn’t a senator then.” As if influence evaporates the second, he switched chairs. Sure, buddy. And water doesn’t run downhill, right?

He calls it “help from a long-time friend,” an innocent generosity, and asks us to ignore the timing, scale, and the suspiciously perfect coincidence. 

Then the Comelec. Supposed to make sure that money doesn’t buy influence. They took one look at it and wrote a nine-page resolution that said: “No problem! Nothing to see here! No more need to investigate. Separate legal entities!”

That excuse is so weak it needs a wheelchair. 

The Comelec went nine pages deep, digging for loopholes, and the moment they found one, boom! Case closed.

By the Comelec’s logic, the law’s power stops on the printed line between man and corporation.

“Lubiano is not Centerways” is like saying “Ramon Ang is not San Miguel, Jaime Zobel de Ayala is not Ayala, Tony Caktiong has no influence over the menu, the stores, or the Jollibee franchise fees.”

A businessman will never, on any morning, wake up to donate P30 million because the Holy Spirit nudged him. It’s a capital expenditure. 

Show us a scenario, any scenario, where a businessman donates millions and it will not serve the company’s interest. Otherwise, why treat “separate legal personality” as a shield when every businessman in the country treats his company as an extension of his will?

If Centerways is barred from donating but its president is not, what prevents any contractor from using a human proxy? And if the law prohibits not just direct donations but indirect ones, tell us: What is more indirect than a contractor using its president?

The law exists to prevent circumvention. The Election Code was written to stop influence and stop precisely the flow of wealth that lines the pockets of friends and companies in the shadow of elected power. Can the Comelec point to one part of Section 95 that blesses contractor presidents as exempt donors?

If not, their ruling does not interpret because it’s an invention. Built entirely on the premise that corporations are magical beings floating above the humans who run them, untethered to the hands that sign, the mind that directs and the ambition that drives it. There is no “magic separation” between a businessman and his enterprise. The president’s signature is the company’s signature. If you run the company, you own the results. Period.

The Comelec said there was no evidence of fraud, that Escudero and Lubiano intended to break the law. Certainly. If you refuse to look at it. Does the Comelec mean no evidence existed, or no evidence survived their standard of disbelief? They insist that we cannot presume bad faith, while presuming we’re all idiots. Can you presume good faith when P30 million changed hands and billions followed?

The Comelec may have cleared Escudero and his “friend,” but nothing in this ruling clears the conscience of this commission. It cleared an aisle for every contractor-politician tandem to dance around the law.

If this is the body tasked with keeping our elections fair, why are we shocked that corruption is laughing at our faces? 

Chiz praised the President for “following the evidence.” We have a nagging feeling, call it instinct, or common sense, but this praise is not civility. It says: “I’ll play nice publicly. You keep the floodgates closed.”

The stakes? Huge. Convict Chiz, and you unleash a desperate man with nothing to lose. Look at Zaldy Co. One insider is already shaking up Malacañang. The President cannot afford the other half of the tandem going against him.