Jacob, N. S. (2018). Enhancing the competence of candidates in car on campaign finance laws (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program Middle Managers' Class Batch 15 - Enggranahe Thesis (MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

"ENHANCING THE COMPETENCE OF CANDIDATES IN CAR ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS" is the title of the Re-Entry Project. It was conceptualized by the proponent purposely to reduce the recurrence of various violations relating to campaign finance, especially those arising from the requirement to submit Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) within 30 days after the election day. Time and again, some candidates and political parties will dip their fingers into the political arena every election; however, come of them will unknowingly or intentionally forget to submit their true and correct SOCEs on time or blatantly disregard the restrictions imposed by campaign finance laws. Thus, other were charged for overspending or were petitioned for disqualifications while most were administratively fined for failure to submit the required SOCEs on time, or for submitting incomplete SOCEs. In due course, those who failed to file SOCE for two of more consecutive elections shall be perpetually disqualified to hold public office. Accordingly, the winning candidates are required to submit their SOCEs on time, otherwise, they shall not be allowed to take their oaths of office and finally assume their posts as elective public officials. If they are allowed to assume their posts, all possible cases will be filed against them by their opponents, including election offenses arising from violations of the campaign finance. As such, they cannot fully devote their time and resources to serving their constituents since they have to answer for those cases filed against them. Hence, it will result in the interrupted delivery of the good public services to the people. With the intervention of this ReP, a training module for candidates on campaign finance was formulated through the assistance of a Technical Working Group (TWG) and was pilot tested to determine its applicability, viability and impact to the candidates, political parties and interested voters who are potential candidates in the future. Based on the results of the evaluation, the training module was assessed to determine whether to sustain or to cease its implementation. Fortunately, in the evaluation of the pilot testing, the participants gave an average rating of 4.79 as the overall rating to the seminar-workshops done, with a qualitative value of very good; which could mean that the conduct of seminar-workshops on campaign finance is recommendable and should be sustained, especially in the forthcoming May 2019 national and local elections. Moreover, in the training module, four indicators of good governance were included or integrated into the discussions on allowable expenditures, prohibited contributors, lawful expenditures, prohibited activities, and disclosures since they are all intertwined with each other. These indicators are rule of law, transparency, accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness. Candidates must be accountable in disclosing true and itemized election expenditures and they must transparent in all the contributions they received from their supporters, by specifically identifying the names, addresses and amount received from them, and issue the corresponding contribution receipts. By obeying these simple requirements of the campaign finance, the rule of law is accomplished and they can be effective and efficient public officials when the time comes. Gonzalez (2003) stated, "Politicians spend three times: one, to become candidates; two, to be voted upon; and three, to get the votes counted in their favor. It takes money to pay a campaign staff and buy materials; it takes money for a campaign to be taken seriously by the press; it even takes money to raise more money." However, candidates must not forget to obey and comply with the spending cap and they need to be updated with the COMELEC records as to the number of registered voters to avoid overspending. Candidates must also be aware of the allowable expenditures. All of these were discussed during the pilot testing, but the program will not stop there. It should be sustained and be part of the voters' education program of the agency which the candidates and political parties, including interested voters who are potential candidates in the future, should attend and participate.