POLITICAL INVESTMENT

Everybody knows that when election time comes, money will overflow. Evidently, political parties will be spending a lot to fund their campaign. Printing presses will be busy printing advertising materials, posters, tshirts and tarpaulines. Restaurants will be filled, catering services will be busy. Money will definitely overflow from all corners in the Philippines. Economy will be primed when election campaigning starts.

It is normal that campaigning is really expensive. It requires money to make people move in a political organization. The only question that arises from this practice is when the campaign fund is solely shouldered by an individual or corporation or a group.
Ideally, campaign funds are the result of aggregate contribution of different individuals. Campaign is not similar to business endeavor where you spend money for capital and expect something in return in the future.

In the Philippines however, election has different set up. It is a common notion that an individual with no money has no right to run for an elected office. It might be true because you can rarely see a politician who drives an ordinary car, lives in an ordinary house and lives in an ordinary lifestyle. They are usually lavish in many things they do. They must all be moneyed.

A political office salary is not that lucrative. A congressman is earning only P35,000 a month. There are probably some more reasons behind that drives these people to ran for elected office and spend millions. Is this the reason why the Philippines is ranking in corruption issue worldwide?
What I am driving at on this particular blog is that if we can discourage people from investing so much on political campaign, then I believe we can lessen the issue of corruption. Political contributions should be limited to a certain amount to avoid control of a political party by rich individuals and encourage contributions from several individuals making the political party a true voice of many individuals.

Those who have invested so much from their campaign will definitely expect to have paybacks as soon as they are elected. Those , usually businessmen, who have contributed a lot to any single politician or a party is also expecting something in return which would also lead to business concessions disadvantageous to the government. These people are making the election as a political investment and the elected official there extended employee obeying every order or request they make.

In the US, under campaign finance laws, an individual can donate $2,300 to a candidate for federal office in both the primary and general election, for a total of $4,600. If a donor has topped the limit in the primary, the campaign can “redesignate” the contribution to the general election on its books.

Federal law does not require the campaigns to identify donors who give less than $200 during the election cycle. However, it does require that campaigns calculate running totals for each donor and report them once they go beyond the $200 mark.

I remember Mr Mark Jimenez who had legal issues in the US with regard to campaign contribution, also admitted to a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by making approximately $41,500 in illegal campaign contributions to various candidates for federal office, a result of which caused false information to be submitted to the Federal Election commission (FEC).