MARILAO, Bulacan , Philippines - Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno Aquino III admitted yesterday that he had put only P3 million to P4 million of his personal funds into his campaign so far and that he would disclose all his campaign donors at the appropriate time.
Aquino said these were his liquid funds that could be spent and these came from his shares of stocks. He also revealed that it was his sister, actress and television host Kris Aquino-Yap, who had contributed much to his campaign kitty.
Aquino-Yap had announced she had sold her house in Pasig City and allocated portions of her talent fees for the campaign of her brother.
The LP standard-bearer dismissed allegations that he was not really running a people’s campaign and relying on contributions from big businessmen with interests to protect.
He said the law requires candidates to disclose the names of the people who made donations to their campaign and he said he would abide by it.
He conceded his money would not be enough but contributions, especially from ordinary people and even students, gave them sufficient funding for the campaign and the guarding of votes during the counting.
Aquino said the law did not require him to identify the contributors to his campaign at this time and that he would also like to protect them from harassment by the administration and its allies.
He bared that some of his businessmen-supporters were already being targeted by various agencies like the Optical Media Board and the Bureau of Internal Revenue and were being subjected to various kinds of inspection and auditing.
Villar had dared Aquino to disclose his campaign donors to prove that the LP was running a people’s campaign.
He said he even got schoolchildren for supporters and that he made sure he did not accept funds from those who were asking for something in return as far as businesses were concerned.
Aquino said he did not like “bribers” or leeches who would not want a level playing field for everyone. He, however, refused to name them.