Senator Rodante Marcoleta classified the P75 million donation that he received in 2025 as personal funds, an official from the Commission on Election (Comelec) said, contradicting his earlier claim that the amount was treated as a campaign donation.

Comelec Political Finance and Affairs Department Attorney III Victoria Besinio told the Sandiganbayan First Division that the information was contained in the donor’s tax documents that Marcoleta himself submitted to the agency.

Besinio was at the anti-graft court as a witness for prosecutors on the senator’s case for alleged violation of Presidential Decree No. 46.

An investigation was previously launched under Comelec on Marcoleta’s donations, after the senator went on a live broadcast, claiming that he had not declared donations that he received from three separate individuals in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE).

The agency had later dismissed the case as it found that the incident was not an election offense given the fact that the amounts were donated to Marcoleta even before the campaign period formally started.

A matter that the agency did manage to confirm, however, was the fact that the senator left out the P75 million from the P112 million that was declared in his SOCE.

Comelec likewise identified Marcoleta’s three donors as former congressman Mike Defensor, and businessmen Joseph Espiritu, and Aristotle Viray.

The First Division handles only one of the three counts for violation of P.D. 46 against the senator and his donors. The court’s Third Division, meanwhile, is handling his case of plunder.

All of Marcoleta, Defensor, Espiritu, and Viray are currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail - Male Dormitory in Payatas.