The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Thursday that the Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) submitted by candidates, party-list groups, and political parties during the May 12 elections will be available online for public viewing starting next week.

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia revealed in an online interview that they are awaiting approval from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for the program that will facilitate the online posting of the SOCEs.

According to Garcia, the program is currently under review by the DICT and they are optimistic about receiving approval by Friday.

Once the green light is given, the SOCEs will be published online one by one, similar to the process followed for the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) publication.

The main objective behind making the SOCEs public is to encourage scrutiny from both political rivals and ordinary citizens. Garcia emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability, stating that it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that candidates are not concealing any information.

Under the law, candidates are allowed to spend PHP3 for each registered voter during the campaign period, while political parties and party-list groups can spend PHP5 per voter.

The deadline for the submission of SOCEs was on Wednesday, with a majority of candidates, party-list groups, and political parties complying with the requirement.

At the national level, 61 out of 64 senatorial candidates, 141 out of 154 party-list groups, and 25 out of 28 political parties have submitted their SOCEs. Meanwhile, at the local level, various candidates for congressional, gubernatorial, vice gubernatorial, provincial board member, mayoral, vice mayoral, and councilor positions have also filed their SOCEs.

The Comelec's Political Finance and Affairs Department will conduct an audit of all the SOCEs submitted by the candidates to ensure compliance with the regulations.