Anne gipahilak ni Sam?

Former Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes, a senatorial candidate of the Genuine Opposition (GO), spent P6.691 million on political advertisements, ABS-CBN reported over the weekend.

The report, which was based on the findings of media research firm AC Nielsen, said the amount was donated by Sen. Jamby Madrigal and her friends.

Trillanes is at the bottom of the list of 24 candidates whose political ad spending the research firm monitored.

The former Navy officer is in detention for his involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny in Makati City.

He was not able to campaign as much as former senator Gregorio Honasan, independent candidate also facing charges in connection with the Oakwood mutiny. Honasan was granted bail by a Makati court.

In the case of Trillanes, the court allowed him media interviews during the homestretch of the 90-day campaign period.

Trillanes is making a good showing in both the official and unofficial vote tabulations, even making it to the top 12 in Pulse Asia’s exit poll.

Trillanes’ political advertisement spending is a drop in the bucket compared with the huge amounts spent by 10 candidates from the administration’s Team Unity and two from GO.

The combined expenses of these 12 senatorial bets amounted to over P1.6 billion.

In a related development, two colleagues of Team Unity’s Prospero Pichay Jr. justified yesterday the P202.746 million that AC Nielsen said he spent on political ads. Pichay is the biggest spender on AC Nielsen’s list.

“Spending big on legitimate campaign activities shows Pichay was transparent and aboveboard,” Representatives Eduardo Zialcita of Parañaque and Eduardo Veloso of Leyte said in a joint statement.

“Butch (Pichay) has nothing to hide, as he’ll be transparent when he reports his election expenditures to the Commission on Elections (Comelec),” they said.

Pichay disputed AC Nielsen’s figures, saying they were wrong because candidates received discounts of 20 percent to 50 percent from television and radio stations.

He did not say how much of a discount he got or how much he really spent on TV and radio ads but, factoring in possible discounts of 20 percent to 50 percent on AC Nielsen’s monitored figure of P202.746 million, Pichay must have spent between P162.197 million  and P101.373 million.

Another TU candidate, Sen. Joker Arroyo, is protesting AC Nielsen’s figures, which put Arroyo’s spending on political ads at P170.090 million. – Jess Diaz