Company, NGO contribute beyond their means to elex campaigns

There’s something curious about some of the biggest contributors to the campaign of senatorial bets Jack Enrile and JV Ejercito. An NGO with a startup capital of only P90,000 gave P44 million to Ejercito’s campaign, while a family business with an income of P82 million contributed P135.96 million to the Enrile campaign. Based on the Schedule of Contributions Received submitted by the candidates to the poll body, Enrile got P150.8 million in campaign contributions. The Enrile family’s Pacific Royal Basic Foods Inc. practically bankrolled his failed bid with a generous P135.96 million contribution — even though the company only had a net income of P81.84 million in 2011. JV Ejercito’s own bid got P20 million from his mother, re-elected San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez. His biggest contributor though was an NGO called JV Para sa Bayan Movement Inc, which poured P43.69 million into his campaign — this, despite reporting a capital of only P90,000. The NGO was incorporated on December 13, 2012, or 5 months before this year’s midterm elections. Its incorporation papers say the NGO aims to “uplift the lives and standard of the Filipino youth through education and employment.”

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