COMELEC CLEARS SENATOR WHO DECLARED ZERO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS — WHILE SPENDING P139.9 MILLION

Senator Rodante Marcoleta filed a Statement of Contributions and Expenditures reporting zero donations received. He also reported spending P139.9 million on his campaign. And he won a Senate seat.

On March 18, 2026, the Commission on Elections en banc voted 6-0-1 to clear him of any election offense.

WHAT THE COMELEC ACTUALLY DECIDED

Six commissioners voted unanimously to clear him. Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia recused himself.

The Comelec had launched the case — No. 2025-032 — on its own, without a complainant, after Marcoleta's SOCE figures attracted scrutiny. Its Political Finance and Affairs Department, headed by Director Efraim Bag-id, recommended terminating the probe after finding "no other evidence to show that Respondent committed any election offense." Commissioner Rey Bulay explained the outcome to reporters that evening.

THE NUMBERS

Marcoleta ranked sixth in the May 2025 senatorial elections with 15,250,723 votes. His SOCE, filed June 10, 2025, declared P139.9 million in campaign spending. Contributions received: zero.

His Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth declared a net worth of P51,965,559 as of June 30, 2025.

The math does not work. Comelec noticed, issued a show-cause order in November 2025, and Marcoleta responded on January 6, 2026 with a verified position paper confirming he had received P75 million from three donors.

Those donors were Michael Tan Defensor, a former Anakalusugan party-list representative; Joseph Varias Espiritu; and Aristotle Baluyut Viray. The money arrived on or around January 11, 2025 — more than a month before the official campaign period began on February 11, 2025.

It only came to light because Marcoleta talked about it himself. On his Net25 program Sa Ganang Mamamayan in November 2025, he explained why he reported zero contributions: his donors asked that he not disclose their identities. So he declared zero.

THE TWO LOOPHOLES

The Comelec did not dispute that Marcoleta received P75 million and did not disclose it. It cleared him anyway, on two separate legal grounds.

The first is decriminalization. Section 109 of the Omnibus Election Code requires candidates to fully disclose all contributions, amounts, dates, and contributor identities. Violating it was originally a criminal election offense under Section 262 — up to six years in prison. Republic Act No. 7166, passed in 1991, removed that from the list of criminal offenses. Garcia was direct: "It is already decriminalized. It is no longer a criminal case. If a candidate, based on RA 7166, did not disclose what is required by Section 109, he is not criminally liable." The penalty is now administrative — fines starting at P5,000, disqualification only after a second offense.

The second is the Peñera doctrine. The Supreme Court's 2009 ruling in Peñera v. COMELEC held that a person is legally a "candidate" only once the campaign period begins. Since Marcoleta received the money around January 11, 2025 — before the February 11 campaign period start — he was not yet a candidate. The funds were personal, not campaign contributions, and no SOCE disclosure was required.

Bulay put it plainly. "But he received [the money], he [was not yet] a candidate and it [was] not yet campaign period." And then: "If [money was] received before the campaign — yes they can utilize it however they wish and not be held accountable."

THE DONORS ARE THE ONES FACING CHARGES

In the same ruling, the Comelec en banc directed its Law Department to investigate Defensor, Espiritu, and Viray. The charge: failure to file individual Reports of Contributions within 30 days after the May 2025 elections, per Section 99 of the OEC. That provision was not repealed by RA 7166. It still applies to donors.

Defensor reacted the following day, calling it a "double standard." He confirmed his own P30 million contribution, said he paid donor's tax, and questioned why the recipient walked free while the givers face charges. His analogy: it is like a burglary case where the person who entered the house has no case, but the one who helped them climb in does.

Former Comelec Commissioner Luis Guia called the ruling "absurd" on ABS-CBN on March 20. Kontra Daya convener Danilo Arao said it "defies all logic."

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson had raised a separate legal question: at the time Marcoleta received the money, he was a sitting SAGIP party-list representative. Under Article 211 of the Revised Penal Code, public officers who accept gifts by reason of their office are guilty of indirect bribery even without a quid pro quo. That complaint has not been filed. A perjury complaint at the Ombudsman, filed by Kontra Daya in December 2025, also remains pending.

THE BLUEPRINT

Bulay admitted the Comelec only discovered Marcoleta's undisclosed contributions because Marcoleta himself discussed them on television. If he had not said it publicly, Bulay said, they never would have known. It is impossible, he added, for the Comelec to catch all of these.

The ruling has officially confirmed the procedure: collect large sums before the campaign period begins, use those funds during the campaign, report zero contributions in the SOCE, face no criminal liability. Arao called it a blueprint for how the rich and powerful can manipulate their SOCEs going forward. The 2028 presidential election is two years away.

Any candidate who follows this procedure quietly — and does not make the mistake of discussing it on their own TV program — will almost certainly never be caught.