Investigative Reporting Seminar on Scrutinizing Electoral Campaign Spending in the Philippines The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) conducted the first leg of the seminar series supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on January 21-24, 2016 at The Bayleaf Intramuros, Manila. Journalists from the National Capital Region and Luzon provinces attended the seminar. The seminar aimed at deepening the knowledge of the participants on investigative reporting and scrutinizing electoral campaign spending. It also aimed to grow the number of better-skilled auditors of good governance and democracy from both the demand and supply side of public information. In turn, they will sustain the effort of scrutinizing electoral campaign spending prior to and during campaign period as well as advocate for open access both at the national and local levels of government across administrations. Following the module prepared by the PCIJ Training Desk, the first of the series of seminars on campaign finance followed a three-part program. The first part dealt with topics that would help the participants understand the media and elections landscape in the Philippines. It included discussions on: 1) FOI, FOE, and the State of Media Coverage of the Philippine Elections; 2) The Sustainable Development Goals and the 2016 Elections; and 3) Elections, Party Politics and Political Clans. The second part of the training program included topics on Elections and Campaign Spending, namely: 1) Getting acquainted with the Policy Environment; 2) Understanding the Statement of Election Contributions and Expenditures and other Documents Crucial in Campaign Finance Monitoring; and 3) Field visit to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) which also included a discussion on Election Campaigns and Campaign Finance. The third and last part of the training program dealt with topics that would help the participants move the story further. These include: 1) Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism; 2) Data Journalism; and 3) Workshop on Campaign Finance. On the last day of the training, the participants were asked to share their workshop outputs to the body.