BARELY A MONTH has lapsed since the official campaign period started last February 9 but at least 15 candidates for national posts have already acquired more than a third of a billion pesos worth of ads — or P373 million — from leading television network ABS-CBN alone, according to advertising contracts submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

WHEN it conducted its special audit on the disbursement of pork in 2007-2009, part of the methodology that the Commission on Audit (COA) employed was to confirm the authenticity of documents from the concerned parties – the legislators who endorsed the projects, the suppliers and beneficiaries, and the regulatory offices. This was COA’s way of discerning the validity of the reported transactions.

PCIJ SENT 20 legislators implicated in the alleged corruption of pork funds separate letters requesting for comments. Only three responded in writing, a fourth had his chief of staff interviewed on cam, and a fifth promised to send his reply via courier.

On Sept. 11, 2013, a day after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on all PDAF spending, Binay announced that he had decided to remove pork from the OVP budget.