Comelec: Poe, Robredo biggest campaign spenders

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Commission on Elections' (Comelec) continued to receive submissions of the campaign expenses and funding sources of local and national candidates on Wednesday afternoon.

The poll body even extended the 5 p.m. deadline by one and a half hours, with Mar Roxas ending up as the only presidential bet who failed to submit his Statement of Contributions and Expenditure (SOCE).

But, in contrast to the hundreds of millions of pesos in campaign spending, the fine for not filing the SOCE is only between ₱10,000 and ₱30,000, depending on the position.

Among presidential candidates, Grace Poe was the biggest spender with ₱510,845,262.56, while her campaign contributions stood at ₱511,950,000.

She is followed by Jejomar Binay, Rodrigo Duterte, and Miriam Santiago who spent the least with only ₱74,652,689.87. Without Roxas, all four presidential bets combined spent ₱1.4 billion for the campaign.

For the vice presidential bets, Vice President-elect Leni Robredo spent ₱418,664,130.60 and received ₱423,163,737.34 in contributions.

The second biggest spender is Chiz Escudero, with ₱321,014,827.64. He is followed by Alan Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos, Antonio Trillanes, and Gringo Honasan who spent the least with ₱26,259,899.20.

Combined, the vice presidential candidates spent a total of ₱P1.15 billion.

Beyond the declaration of campaign spending, candidates must also include sources of contributions – stating the donor's personal details and contributed amount.

They should include advertising deals and broadcast logs that indicate the air time a candidate paid for advertisements.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista stressed that, more than declaring the campaign spending, information must be accurate and true.

"Porke ka nag-file ng SOCE does not mean that puro correct na. So ito it's a formal requirement at, 'pag nakalagay na, then we will give you that certificate of formal compliance. Pero pwede pa ring repasuhin kung ano ang mga numero na nailagay," Bautista said.

[Translation: The mere filing of SOCE does not mean that the information is correct. It's a formal requirement and if it's already posted then we will give you that certificate of formal compliance. But the numbers can still be altered.]

The law sets spending limits for candidates and political parties. Those who ran for President and Vice President were allowed to spend ₱10 per registered voter or a total of ₱540.3 million. None of the candidates overspent so far.

Editor's Note: CNN Philippines tried to get the side of Mar Roxas, but his camp has yet to respond to our calls.