Sen. Rodante Marcoleta admitted to not disclosing campaign contributions for the May 2025 election. He was unstoppable in a Nov. 8, 2025 interview on Net25 (translated from Filipino):
“Friends did contribute to me. They had only one request: ‘Accept our donation.’ I was congressman then. ‘Cong, we believe you deserve to go to the Senate; please accept this amount.’ There were several of them.
“They had one request: ‘Please do not disclose our identities.’ So if I put a figure in the contributions, I would have been forced to name names. Why? Because there’s a corresponding Deed of Acceptance of Donation. What happens then? This is a contribution.
“They said, ‘No, we’re giving you a contribution, but that is your debt of gratitude to us. Treat it as debt.’ They called it debt, debt with no need for repayment, debt of gratitude. So since I cannot disclose their identities, I stated zero contributions. I will be forced to write zero.
“Had I stated amounts, I would’ve been forced to name them one by one. Now it is not possible for me to not spend what you gave me. I know that you know each other. For example, if I state expenditure of P5 million, they would be able to compute things.
“They might say Cong Dante kept the remainder. Tignan mo nga naman ang buhay, nanalo na, kumita pa. He won, yet also profited. I didn’t want that, because they entrusted me with the sum. So I had to spend it. It was impossible for me not to spend it because they gave it to me – because they wanted me to win. They trusted me. Is there a law that says I should force them to disclose? Show me such law.
“It was impossible for me to not spend it. So that’s how much I spent. They gave it to me, they entrusted it to me, because they wanted me to win.”
So in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures, Marcoleta swore to receiving zero but spending P112.8 million
Investigating him on Nov. 21, Comelec found no wrong. Congress had decriminalized such nondisclosure since 1991. Under RA 7166 only contributors are required to report.
Still, the Office of the Ombudsman dug deeper. It found out that Marcoleta accepted P75 million from ex-congressman Mike Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.
The ombudsman’s field investigation bureau smelled plunder. RA 7080, amended by RA 7659, states that “plunder is committed by a public officer who, by himself or in conspiracy with others, accumulates, amasses or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a series or combination of overt or criminal acts, amounting to at least P50 million.”
FIB listed a series and combination of offenses, including:
• Bribery of a congressman;
• Falsification of SOCE which, although decriminalized, is still fined P1,000-P30,000;
• Nonreporting of contributions by the trio.
It deemed Marcoleta to have personally gained P75 million and Senate victory, while Defensor et al earned a debt of gratitude. The Sandiganbayan issued May 18 a precautionary hold departure order to prevent the four from fleeing the country.
Plunder is nonbailable. Indictees are suspended from office and jailed while on trial.
In a counter affidavit mid-June, Marcoleta claimed:
• He didn’t disclose the P75 million to the Comelec because it was given in January 2025, a month before the campaign period commenced on Feb. 11, 2025;
• He also didn’t mention the P75 million in his SALN of December 2025 because he had already spent it for his campaign, thus his net worth of only P16.7 million;
• There was no plunder because the P75 million was not government money.
The ombudsman didn’t buy Marcoleta’s claims. Plunder does not specify funds from the government and punishes mere illegal enrichment by at least P50 million.
On Facebook, Marcoleta said the admin wants him out of office. It supposedly aims to prevent him from participating in the trial of impeached VP Sara Duterte. Also from investigating the P1.7-trillion flood works scam which his archfoe Sen. Ping Lacson exposed.
Last Monday, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said Marcoleta et al will be indicted for plunder this week:
“I didn’t even ask for this to happen. All the evidence came from you know where. We did not seek this, but this happened because motu proprio, apparently the crime was committed in open knowledge of everybody.”
Ang isda ay nahuhuli sa bunganga, the Tagalogs say.
(See Marcoleta interview on Net25: https://tinyurl.com/Marcoleta-P112M-Campaign-Fund)
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