Win or lose, file your SOCE -- COMELEC

INTRAMUROS, Manila - The Commission on Elections reminds candidates for the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections to file their statements of election contributions and expenditures (SOCE) not later than June 13, 2018, or risk being perpetually disqualified to hold public office.

A candidate is any person seeking an elective public office who has filed a certificate of candidacy (COC).  The period of filing of COC started last Saturday, April 14, and will end on Friday, April 20.  Win or lose, all candidates must file their SOCE, COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez said.

The Campaign Finance Office (CFO) published on the website on April 13, 2018, a list of candidates declared with finality by the Commission as perpetually disqualified to hold public office due to repeated failure to file their SOCE after elections.

"We have always said that the Barangay is where the public directly experiences our government.  Therefore, our frontline public officials must be sterling exemplars of upright, law-abiding citizens to the public whom they pledge to serve," James Jimenez said.

Section 14 of R.A. 7166 requires the filing of SOCE, and failure to do so prohibits winning candidates from entering upon the duties of their office until they have compiled.  Further, the commission of a second or subsequent failure to file the SOCE subjects the offender to perpetual disqualification to hold public office. [Education and Information Department]