Time for campaign finance reforms

With the next general elections just two years away, lawmakers can begin working with various groups on measures to clean up political processes.

Ongoing congressional and judicial investigations are showing the extent of the rot in the political system. Politics has become the biggest and most lucrative criminal enterprise in this country, with the general public as the victim.

Among high officials in government, it seems that betrayal of public trust and robbing the people blind have become the rule rather than the exception.

The organized crime begins at the gates – upon entry into politics through elections. Election campaigns have been turned into highly efficient machineries for large-scale money laundering.

Recent testimonies about large-scale corruption feature similar threads: dirty money is delivered in cash – mountains of it, often fresh from the banks. The amounts mentioned are so massive the cash has to be packed in boxes or pricey suitcases for delivery to the crooked recipients.

Many of the alleged deliveries were done in the course of election campaigns, according to the testimonies.

The cost of seeking public office, especially in national races, has become prohibitive. Spending caps are enforced, but only on a limited basis, and social media has made monitoring more complicated.

Campaign finance regulations set under election laws are limited. Through several Congresses, the Commission on Elections has been proposing campaign finance reforms. Although the proposals could drastically reduce election spending, however, all were rejected by the Congresses.

The inevitable suspicion is that the near-absence of transparency in campaign contributions has been immensely lucrative for politicians. It has led to the joke that certain people seek elective posts mainly for the fund of it.

Campaign finance has also become a near-foolproof machinery for laundering dirty money. Gambling barons, drug dealers, smugglers, ransom kidnappers and organized robbery gang leaders have invested in the campaigns of politicians to buy protection. Several have themselves sought – and won – public office. Alice Guo became mayor of Bamban, Tarlac with resources raised from Philippine offshore gaming operations. Proceeds from corruption have bankrolled many election campaigns.

There are so many reasons why the country needs to strictly regulate campaign finance. The 20th Congress, which is pursuing accountability in the case of Vice President Sara Duterte and is trying to cleanse itself amid the flood control and budget scandal, can ramp up the reform effort by finally passing a law that genuinely regulates campaign finance.