Comelec regulates online campaigning

CEBU, Philippines -  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will now be monitoring internet sites to regulate online campaigning by local and national candidates for the upcoming May 2013 elections.

This is based on Resolution 9615 which is on the rules and regulations for the Fair Elections Act.

Atty. Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec Cebu Provincial Supervisor, said that while they have been monitoring TV, radio and newspaper campaigning in the previous elections, Comelec will be including online campaigning because the resolution states that other forms of medium would be included.

Castillano said that since there has been a stronger use of online media, candidates for the elections have opted to bring their campaign to internet sites.

However, Castillano explained that the regulation of online campaigning does not mean that they will be regulating posts on personal expressions online.

He said that personal views, opinions and preferences for candidates in the internet would not be considered campaigning unless expressed by government officials from the executive, legislative, judiciary and constitutional commissions as well as the members of the civil service.

“In a way, there is a limitation there. However let me just point out that ang amo gi-regulate is political advertising sa internet websites,” explaining that sites where the candidate would be paying advertising fees for his political advertisement would be the ones they would be regulating.

He said that this goes with the regulation they implement on advertisements in TV, Radio and newspapers where candidates are limited to three times a week to advertise and would have a limitation on the size of the post.

For broadsheets, political ads are limited to half the size of one page while in the tabloid is limited to one-fourth. For TV, the maximum airtime of ads for the whole duration of the campaign period would be 60 minutes. Radio advertising is limited to 120 minutes.

Castillano said that for online media, they would limit the size of the advertisements like pop-ups and pictures and would be particular on the frequency of the advertisement.

 He said that they have yet to receive information on the monitoring process in the regional area but would possibly be the same way they monitor the expenses of the candidates in the past elections.

According to Castillano, they have regulated the advertisements of the candidates in the past elections since it is included in the Statement of Contribution and Expenditures (SOCE), which the candidates are obliged to submit to their office within 30 days after the election day.

He said that if the candidates would be paying for online advertisements, it should be included in their SOCE.

Castillano also stressed that they will be stricter on the submission of SOCE this time since in the past years, there have been candidates who failed to submit this to their office.

An administrative case would be filed against candidates who win and fail to submit their SOCE and candidates who lose during the election are still obliged to submit it.

But in order to be more firm on the submission of the SOCE this time, Comelec and DILG have signed a memorandum wherein winning candidates who are not able to submit their SOCE would not be allowed to assume office.

Castillano explained that a SOCE is important for them to check if the candidates are following the order on the limitation of expenses. Aside from advertising, candidates are limited to spend P3 per voter while the political party can spend P5 for every voter. — /JPM (FREEMAN)