The perfunctory Commission on Elections (Comelec) investigation that cleared Senator Chiz Escudero of receiving an illegal contribution for the 2022 polls is disappointing. The ruling, however, does little to clear the former Senate president of the long trail of misdeeds that continues to shadow his political career.

According to the Comelec’s Political Finance and Affairs Department, the P30-million donation Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., made to Escudero did not come from Centerways.

After Escudero won a Senate seat, however, Centerways was awarded several big-ticket contracts in Sorsogon, the senator’s turf.

“There is no evidence establishing that the funds used in the contribution originated from Centerways, or that its corporate money crept into the campaign funds of respondent Escudero through the contribution made by respondent Lubiano,” the Comelec decision stated. 

Lawyer Marvin Aceron, who is involved in several infrastructure cases, had provided the smoking gun against Escudero that the Comelec apparently ignored.

On 2 October, Aceron filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Escudero, alleging that the senator’s campaign was bankrolled with funds that Lubiano supposedly obtained through his contracting firm.

The Omnibus Election Code prohibits candidates from accepting donations from companies that have ongoing government contracts, including construction projects.

Aceron said he went to the Senate panel to test its resolve, particularly in pursuing the big fish, amid the corruption scandal.

To prove that the funds that went to Escudero came from Centerways, Aceron reviewed Lubiano’s retained earnings, which are net income less dividends to shareholders.

In the company’s 2022 SEC filing, Aceron noticed an item for P35 million that disappeared in Centerway’s 2023 and 2024 financial papers.

“The Comelec did not address that. I don’t think they even asked the SEC for the same documents I submitted to the Senate,” Aceron averred.

Centerways subsequently won P16.67 billion in government contracts.

“The issue here is that the donor and the corporation are being treated as separate personalities. But how do they explain the contracts that were awarded to the company afterward?” Aceron pushed his argument.

He conceded, however, that connecting the contracts and the contributions was beyond the Comelec’s jurisdiction, but “we had hoped for a more progressive Comelec that would examine a candidate’s subsequent actions after being elected.”

There was P35 million missing from Centerways’ books, and Lubiano owns 99.33 percent of the company. “That’s grounds to pierce the corporate veil, to treat the individual and the corporation as one,” Aceron continued.

Game 1 might have gone Escudero’s way, but there’s still the bigger question of his role as Senate president in the manipulation of the 2025 national budget through the bicameral conference committee.

House Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno pointed to Escudero and former House appropriations committee chairperson Zaldy Co for the massive insertions, estimated at P13.8 billion, in this year’s budget.

The insertions displaced crucial projects that were shoved into unprogrammed appropriations (UA), meaning the legislators’ kickback projects received priority funding.

The UA are items in the budget whose amounts have geometrically increased during the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Escudero may even be a crucial piece of the puzzle in the corruption scandal, given that he was the Senate chief when the severely mangled 2025 General Appropriations Act was crafted and subsequently signed by Marcos.

Co took care of the House component of the plundering mafia, while the Senate part was Escudero’s.