Cagayan de Oro City—Commission on Elections Commissioner Louie Guia reminded all candidates who ran in the 2016 elections to submit their Statement of Contribution and Expenditure before the June 8 deadline.
“The Comelec will file cases against those who fail to submit,” Guia said.
Guia was in Cagayan de Oro City to oversee the Random Manual Audit-Level II in the region.
He added that the Comelec has never been remiss in reminding the candidates of the deadline.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, candidates who fail to submit their SOCE twice wil also be barred from running for public office.
Guia added that the 2016 automated election had been efficient and transparent that results started pouring in just an hour after the closing of the polling centers.
He said that since the election returns are transmitted to transparency servers and the teachers no longer have to manually count the result, the result is faster.
“We now have more politicians who have learned the word ‘concede’ as oppose to the traditional manual canvassing,” Guia said.
He also said that the Comelec would submit its findings on the problems encountered during the 2016 election to improve the next election.
“We need more time for education and information campaign to ensure that voters would shade their ballot correctly,” Guia said.