Looks like it's not uncommon for contractors to give donations to election candidates during poll season.

It was learned during the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) budget hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations Monday, Sept. 1 that at least 31 "possible contractors" donated to election candidates in 2022.

Marikina Citty 2nd district Rep. Miro Quimbo drew out this information from Comelec Chairman George Garcia during the farmer's interpellation of the agency official.

“As of last Saturday po, 31 na possible contractors po yung aming nakita sa mga kumandidato sa lahat ng national position so far. Ongoing pa po yung review namin,” Garcia told Quimbo.

(As of last Saturday, we’ve identified 31 possible contractors among those who ran for national positions so far. Our review is still ongoing.)

The year 2022 was the last time presidential elections were held in the country. But what about the contractor-donators during the 2025 mid-term polls?

According to Garcia, Comelec opted to first look into the Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) of candidates who ran in the 2022 elections.

“Iniwan po muna namin yung 2025 sapagkat may prescriptive period po kasi and election offense ng limang taon. Yung 2022 magpi-prescribe siya sa 2027 at yung 2025 sa 2030 pa po yan,” he explained.

(We’re setting aside 2025 for now because election offenses have a prescriptive period of five years. The 2022 cases will prescribe in 2027, and those from 2025 will do so in 2030.)

Quimbo specifically asked the Comelec chief about Section 95 of the Omnibus Election Code, which barred poll candidates from accepting campaign donations from contractors doing business with the government.

Garcia says they are now coordinating with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to determine if the contractors have contracts with the government before the election hopefuls' filing of their certificates of candidacy (COCs).

“Kung inyo pong papahintulutan, hindi ko po muna sasabihin at ire-reveal on record pero isa-submit po namin… yung listahan sapagkat po we have to verify with DPWH kung itong 31 na ito ay may existing contract at the time of the filing of the candidacy ng mga naturang kandidato,” he said.

(If you will allow it, I won’t disclose or reveal the names on record just yet, but we will submit the list... because we still need to verify with DPWH whether these 31 individuals had existing contracts at the time they filed their candidacy.)

“Kasi po may posibilidad na sila ay contractors pero wala naman ho silang kontrata sa pamahalaan, so ligtas po sila dun (There’s a possibility that they are contractors but didn’t have any government contracts, so they would be in the clear),” Garcia added.

In the end, Garcia admitted that it's a challenging task to identify individuals who were officials of companies that donated campaign funds to candidates.