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The following is a special report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. More material on Philippine politics is
available on PCIJ's Money Politics blog.

The pool of donors of the national candidates in the Philippines remains an exclusive club of a few big donors who come from old elite
families, big business entities, affluent law firms, and even some parties who have secured contracts and appointive positions with the
government, a PCIJ review of public records on the last five elections reveals.
Even fewer still are the repeat donors and families of donors who may be called the frequent spenders or high rollers in national
elections since 1998.

In contrast, the number of citizens donating small amounts to the candidates either out of faith in the politics or policies that the latter
espouse, or for benign or self-serving reasons remains negligible.

For sure, donating to candidates in elections is a public good, and a public duty of all voters, according to new Commission on
Elections Commissioner Luie Tito F. Guia. That is, he says, if elections are to remain inclusive and accountable.

There is nothing wrong per se about large sums of money flowing into the campaign kitty of candidates, continues Guia, who is known
the world over as an authority on campaign-finance laws. But he says that the only thing that must be assured, as the laws provide,
should be the transparency of who donated how much to which candidates.

Recently, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued resolutions designed to raise the bar of transparency on donations and
expenses in elections, in apparent response to the largely opaque and often vague details of election spending reports that many
candidates had filed in elections past.

Comelecs move can only be described as a step in the right direction. As it is, only a few big donors with big bucks continue to bankroll
elections in the Philippines, with their identities largely unknown to the general public.

Frequent donors all

A PCIJ review of selected Statements of Election Contributions and Expenditures (SECE), covering elections from 1998 to 2010, which
were provided by the Comelec showed that:

1. Two individuals donated up to P100 million each, as of the May 2010 elections: Antonio Tonyboy Cojuangco and Emmanuel
Noel Oate.
2. Cojuangco gave a P100-million pile to his second cousin, Benigno Simeon Noynoy C. Aquino III in May 2010. Oate, who
acquired AirAsia Airlines and renamed it Asian Spirit (now Zest Airways) in 1995, under the Fidel V. Ramos administration,
donated two tranches of P50 million to Ramoss Lakas-CMD party, also in May 2010.
3. The list of top donors in the last five elections changed with the shift in the fortunes of the political parties and the candidates
big donors tended to go for the ruling coalition or parties, or candidates who are perceived to have the best chances of victory.
The list and the amounts donated by the big donors had changed with the change in presidents or ruling political parties.
4. In the last five elections, big businessmen, political allies, former government officials, and the law firms partial to or supportive
of the administration parties and the presidents in power invariably dominated the list of donors.
5. Since 1998, too, partners of a famous law firm and relatives of President Aquino were consistently campaign donors. Two
families related to the President also donated at least P2 million each during three different election seasons.
6. Two law firms in particular dominated the list: CVCLAW or the erstwhile Carpio Villaraza Cruz Law or The Firm, and the
Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices or ACCRALAW.
7. A handful of donors with big campaign contributions would later figure as frequent companions in the trade missions abroad of
the presidents they supported, or appointees to senior government positions, or recipients of some government contracts.
8. Only four fairly big corporate entities have come out as big donors to the candidates since 2004: SM Shoemart, Unilab, and
Ortigas Co. Ltd., which gave P10 million, P10 million, and P4 million, respectively, to Estrada in May 2010, and the Rufino
Group of Companies, which gave P5 million to Lakas-CMD in 2004.
9. Three other small companies, Grand C Graphics, 3 Kings Printing, and Aqualee Marine Export Corp., gave P5 million each to
the Lakas-CMD party in the 2004 elections.

Corporates, lawyers

1. Aside from Cojuangco and Oate, other big businessmen had donated big amounts to candidates since 1998, including port
terminals and media owner Enrique T. Razon (P15 million in May 2010 and P1 million in May 1998 to Joseph Estrada and
P500,000 to Buhay Party List in May 2004), and telecommunications giant CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan and real-estate and
retail businessman Andrew Tan, who gave P10 million and P12 million, respectively, to Estradas campaign in May 2010.
2. Groups of businessmen who had struck controversy in the news because of their supposed closeness to former presidents
were also among the top donors in the last five elections.
3. They include the supposed business associates of deposed President Joseph Estrada, namely, William Gatchalian, Jack Ng,
Henry Tan, and Manuel B. Zamora, brother of San Juan Rep. Ronaldo B. Zamora, who had also worked as Estradas
executive secretary.
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4. The Lakas-CMD party, which has former President Ramos as chairman emeritus, has drawn significant campaign donations
from their own circle of business allies, including Raymond M. Moreno, Ramon Jacinto, Antonio Vilar, and the Rufino Group of
Companies.
5. From CVCLAW, founding partner Pancho Villaraza gave P30 million, and senior partner Raoul Angangco, P8 million, to the
Lakas-CMD partys campaign to elect Gloria Macapagal Arroyo president in 2004.
6. ACCRALAW founding partners Avelino V. Cruz and Teodoro D. Regala, and senior partner Victor P. Lazatin were four-peat
donors or benefactors of various candidates in the last four elections.
7. The three contributed to Edgardo Ed Angaras 2001 and 2007 senatorial campaigns; Franklin Frank Drilons 2010 senatorial
bid; and Richard Gordons bids for a Senate seat in 2004 and for the presidency in 2010. Lazatin in addition donated to
Drilons 2001 senatorial campaign and to Juan Edgardo Sonny Angaras 2004 and 2007 Congressional runs.
8. Sonny Angara is Ed Angaras son. Ed Angara is among the founding partners of ACCRALAW; the firm says he is still
connected with it. Drilon and Gordon had worked with the law firm.
9. Five other lawyers of ACCRALAW also donated to some of the same candidates in the last three elections.
10. Interestingly, Avelino Cruzs namesake, Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., co-founded CVCLAW with Villaraza and now Supreme Court
Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio in 1980.
11. Similarly big amounts had been raised by President Aquino and his Liberal Party from his other top donors in the May 2010
elections: Chiong Bu Hong, Martin Ignacio Lorenzo (brother of Luis Lorenzo, agriculture secretary of former President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo), and Fulgencio Factoran Jr., former environment secretary under the late President Corazon C. Aquino.
12. Aquinos other big donors included Cesar Purisima and Gerardo Esquivel, who gave P10 million each in his 2010 bid for the
presidency. Aquino later appointed Purisima Finance secretary, and Esquivel, administrator of the Metropolitan Waterworks
and Sewerage System (MWSS).

Candidates fear

Some candidates themselves have admitted that running an election campaign is very expensive, and can cost someone
vying for a national post tens of millions of pesos. Its a financial burden most candidates cannot take on and they usually
have to rely on donors to get their campaigns up and running until election day.
Ideally, donors give money to election campaigns because they believe in the candidate or party and hope that their bet
would do the country good once in office. But even candidates say they are wary of donors who may want something in return
afterward a fear that has apparently turned into reality far too often.
PCIJ thus thought it would be interesting to know just who have been the serial and serious bankrollers of election campaigns
in recent history. And so it set out to see if there were donors who repeatedly put money into campaign coffers election after
election, as well as if there were families or clans helping fill up campaign kitties in two or more elections.
To learn more about the identities of donors in every election period, PCIJ requested from Comelec the SECE of every
candidate in every election period from 1998 onward. Comelec, however, was able to provide only the SECEs of presidential
candidates from 1998-2010, political parties in 2010, and winning national candidates and party-list from 1998-2010.
A SECE contains all the important information of the donors, from their full names, addresses, to the date of donations, and so
on. PCIJ encoded all the SECE into Excel files to filter out the donors who keep on donating in every election period. To be
considered as a repeating donor, PCIJ determined that an individual must have donated in at least three different election
periods regardless of the amount of his or her donation.

By the millions

PCIJ also tried filtering out the donors who are related by blood or marriage to another donor.
In establishing the list of family of donors, PCIJ determined that two or more donors must be related by blood or marriage to
pass as a family of donors. Also, the family of donors must have donated at least P1 million in one election period. If the family
of donors donated at least P1 million in one election period but donated below P1 million in another election period, only the
election period where they donated at least P1 million in total was included in the list.
Among the serial or repeat donors that emerged using these parameters, four individuals were revealed to have consistently
made campaign contributions in four national elections: Avelino V. Cruz, Victor P. Lazatin, Antonio A. Lopa, and Teodoro D.
Regala. Their donations for their particular candidate ranged from P100,000 to as high as P5 million each.
Of these four-time donors, only Antonio A. Lopa, who is chairman and/or top executive of securities, realty, and automotive
companies, is not from ACCRALAW. His family has close business ties with the Cojuangcos, a business-political clan that
counts President Aquino and his late mother, former President Corazon Cory C. Aquino, among its members. Cory Aquinos
late sister, Teresita, was also married to the late Ricardo Lopa, brother of Antonio Lopa.
Antonio Lopa contributed to the 2001 senatorial campaign of former First Lady Luisa Loi Ejercito, to Jose Jinggoy Estradas
2004 senatorial bid and to that of Loren Legarda in 2007, and finally to Noynoy Aquinos presidential campaign in 2010.
The three remaining four-peat donors, meanwhile, are all senior partners in ACCRALAW, one of the most prestigious law
firms in the country.
ACCRALAW was formed during the Marcos years. According to its website, the firms clientele represents the full spectrum of
business and industry - including many of the Philippines' top 1000 corporations, major companies, (and) conglomerates
based abroad and even professional organizations and individuals.
Past clients have included the electronics giant Philips, Del Monte, Manila Bulletin, and the Philippine Star. ACCRALAW
declined to name some of its current clients when asked directly by PCIJ, but a recent GMA News report mentioned the firm
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as being the representative of voting machine supplier Smartmatic, while Business Mirror identified lawyers from
ACCRALAW as counsels of San Pedro, Laguna Mayor Calixto R. Cataquiz
There were other election campaign donors who were from ACCRALAW, aside from Cruz, Lazatin, and Regala. They include
Emerico O. De Guzman, Emiterio C. Manibog Jr., Luis A. Vera Cruz Jr., Leland R. Villadolid Jr., and Rogelio A. Vinluan, all of
whom were campaign donors in three elections. All the donors from ACCRALAW, however, limited their choice of candidates
to support with financial contributions to Ed and Sonny Angara, Drilon, and Gordon.

Relatives & colleagues

Meanwhile. at least 32 individuals related by blood or social ties to the candidates may be considered top donors in three
national elections. Among these were relatives of candidates, such as Maria Elena Aquino Cruz and Victoria Aquino Dee
(sisters of Noynoy Aquino), Rafael C. Lopa (Aquinos first cousin, the executive director of the Ninoy Aquino Foundation, and
former president of Pulse Asia), and Katrina Ponce Enrile (daughter of Juan Ponce Enrile).
Other three-time donors include Antonio J. Lim and the late Danilo R. Bautista, both of whom held high posts within the JAKA
Group of companies owned by the Ponce Enriles; Emerito C. Mariano Jr., Neil Benedict A. Montejo, and Florencio Gabriel G.
Noel, all of whom were representatives of the party-list that they supported; Alice C. Gapal, Romeo de Jesus, and Joselito V.
Ustarez, who were also associated with the party-list group that each of them supported; and Mary Joan A. Guan, executive
director of the Centre for Womens Resources, which is associated with Gabriela Women's Party List.
Those who had the most number of repeat donors among the individual candidates were Angara, Aquino, Drilon, Enrile,
Estrada, and Gordon, while Gabriela Womens Party-List, An Waray, and Anakpawis were the party-list groups that had the
highest number of serial donors.
PCIJ next turned its attention to donor families. By comparing the information available in the SECEs and on the Internet,
PCIJ found 19 donor families who each made a total contribution of at least P1 million in a single election season.
Among these 19 families, four had total campaign contributions of at least P2 million each in three different election seasons:
Aquino, Lopa, Ponce Enrile, and Zamora.

Kris beats em all

Among the Aquinos, the biggest donor was Kris Aquino, who contributed P20 million to older brother Noynoy Aquinos
senatorial bid in 2007, and then P15 million to his presidential campaign in 2010. She also made a P10-million donation to the
Akbayan Citizens Action Party in the 2010 elections.
Among the Lopas, Antonio A. Lopa was the biggest donor in terms of total contributions to different candidates. Interestingly
enough, he gave more to the senatorial campaign kitties of Jinggoy Estrada (P2 million in 2004) and Loren Legarda (P5
million in 2007) than to that of 2010 presidential campaign of Noynoy Aquino, nephew-in-law of his late brother Ricardo.
Katrina Ponce Enrile, meantime, was easily the bigger donor in her family, besting older brother Juan Jr. or Jack. Katrina is
the president and CEO of the familys JAKA Group of Companies while Jack is currently a member of the House of
Representatives. Both Katrina and Jack contributed to the senatorial campaign of their father, Juan Ponce Enrile.
In the Zamora family, Salvador is the biggest donor followed by brother Manuel, and finally another brother Ronaldo, Both
Salvador and Manuel are mining magnates; Manuel is the chairman and founder of the largest nickel mining company in the
Philippines, Nickel Asia, while Salvador is the chairman of Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp. and former president of the
Hinatuan Mining Corp., Cagdianao Mining Corp., and Taganito Mining Corp. Ronaldo is a former representative of San Juan.
Manuel donated P2 million to the 2001 senatorial campaign of Loi Ejercito while Salvador contributed P5 million to Noynoy
Aquinos 2010 presidential bid. All three Zamora brothers donated to Panfilo Lacsons senatorial campaign in 2007.
There were, however, seven families of donors who contributed a total of at least P10 million in a single election season: the
Aquinos, Aranetas, Bayots, Cojuangcos, Evangelistas, Lims, and Ponce Enriles.
The Cojuangco family outshone the other family of donors as their total contribution during the 2010 elections amounted to
P115 million. But this was largely because Antonio Tonyboy Cojuangco, who has business interests in information
technology, realty, and property development firms donated P100 million to the presidential campaign of his second cousin
Noynoy Aquino. That contribution also made him Aquinos top campaign donor.

The Aranetas

In 2004, seven members of the Araneta clan, which is into commercial real estate, among other things, donated P46 million
altogether. The bulk of the monies went to the senatorial campaign of Manuel Mar Roxas II, with P20 million coming from his
mother, Judy Araneta Roxas. Benito Araneta, meanwhile, donated P7 million to the Lakas CMD/Koalisyon ng Katapatan at
Karanasan sa Kinabukasan during the 2004 elections.
In May 2010, Roxas, defeated running mate of President Aquino and now secretary of the Interior and Local Government,
donated almost P39 million to the Liberal Party, where he is also the incumbent president.
Brothers Francisco and Vicente Madrigal Bayot donated P10 million each to the 2004 presidential bid of Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo. The Madrigal-Bayot family is into shipping, mining, cement, banking, and real estate construction.
During the 2010 election campaign, brothers Antonio Evangelista and his son Rolando made a total contribution of P35
million. Antonios P15-million donation, however, went to the presidential campaign of his former high school classmate,
Joseph Ejercito Estrada, while Rolando gave P20 million to the Nacionalista Party. The Evangelistas head the New Kanlaon
Construction Enterprises Co. In 2000, PCIJ reported that Antonio had managed to land the P2.8-billion Erap City housing
project in Montalban, Rizal.
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David Lim and his mother Elena gave P10 million each to support the presidential bid of Noynoy Aquino in 2010. The Lims are
major stockholders in the Solid Group of Companies, whose products include the popular My/Phone cellular phone brand.
Among the 19 donor clans, though, the Aquinos stand out as having ties with three of the other families: the Cojuangcos,
Lichaucos, and Lopas. While Noynoy Aquino is related to the Cojuangcos and Lopas through his mother Cory, he is related to
the Lichaucos via his father Benigno Sr., whose sister Maria Aurora married Ernesto Enrique Lichauco.
Not surprisingly, most of the donations of the Aquinos, Cojuangcos, Lichaucos, and Lopas, went to fund the 2010 presidential
campaign of Noynoy Aquino, making him the candidate with the most number of donors coming from a family of campaign
contributors during that election. The minimum contribution of each of these donors to Aquinos campaign in 2010 was
P500,000.
The Aquinos, Lichaucos, and Lopas also donated to the Akbayan Citizens Action Party during the 2010 polls. Looking through
the list of families of donors who donated at least P 1,000,000 in one election season, PCIJ found that among the party-list
groups, only Akbayan had donors who came from the same family. The minimum contribution of each of these donors to
Akbayan was P250,000.

Venture capitalists?

In May 2010, PCIJs review of the election spending reports of seven presidential candidates and three political parties
showed that election campaigns in the Philippines are funded in the manner and mold of financing for risky business start-ups.
Candidates fattened their campaign kitty using personal funds, and money from family members and friends rather than a
wide network of supporters of the political party, organization, or movement.
In business, the PCIJ had noted then, these private-equity sources of funding are ideal for ventures with low success rates but
high pay-offs that are usually shunned by banks and the capital markets.
And then there are also those who are the political equivalent of the venture capitalist: the wealthy individual who is unrelated
to the candidate but who makes a big bet on his or her candidacy either because of genuine conviction or shrewd calculation.
The election spending reports on file with Comelec and PCIJ do not show the names of other donors with contributions in the
millions of pesos, who should have been on the list, according to fund-raisers PCIJ interviewed.
Many donors also hedge, the fund-raisers told PCIJ. Some play it safe by donating to several candidates vying for the same
position. Few can afford not to give any donations at all.
A Filipino-Chinese business leader remarked: If you see your business competitor becoming unduly close to the likely winner,
you tend to worry and begin to look for ways to get to know the candidate, too.

Last words

In the May 2010 elections, the Philippines had an official total of 50.7 million registered voters, but only 308 persons donated
to the seven candidates for president and the top three political parties.
Of the 308 donors, only 48 gave more than P10 million each, and altogether accounted for almost 80 percent of total funds of
P1.58 billion raised for the campaign, including the candidates own money.

With reporting and research by Malou Mangahas, Karol Ilagan, and Fernando Cabigao Jr., PCIJ, May 2013