"x x x.
Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel "Mar" Roxas II dared his rivals last February to identify the owners of planes and helicopters they've been using in their campaign sorties. For her part, Poe, named conglomerate San Miguel Corporation and Helitrend Corporation as the companies lending them or renting out private planes for her campaign.
These disclosures highlighted a possible violation of at least two laws – the Corporation Code (Batas Pambansa 68) and the Omnibus Election Code (Batas Pambansa 881), particularly the provisions that ban companies from making donations for election purposes.
Section 36(g) of the Corporation Code specifies that companies can make reasonable donations for charity and for the public welfare, but not “in aid of any political party or candidate or for purposes of partisan political activity."
Meanwhile, section 95 of the Omnibus Election Code states that among those prohibited from contributing "for purposes of partisan political activity" are:
- public or private financial institutions
- operators of public utility or those in possession of or exploiting any natural resources of the nation
- contractors or sub-contractors that supply the government with goods or services, or perform construction or other works
- grantees of government-granted franchises
- grantees of loans worth more than P100,000 by the government
- educational institutions that have received grants of public funds of more than P100,000
- officials/employees in the civil service, or members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
- foreigners and foreign corporations x x x."
