UNA explains why guest candidates excluded from ad

MANILA, Philippines - The three guest candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) were not included in the campaign advertisements to allow the other nine exclusive senatorial candidates more exposure, party secretary-general Toby Tiangco said yesterday.

Tiangco said Grace Poe–Llamanzares and re-electionist senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda were not included in the TV ads but their names have been put on the list.

“UNA agreed that they will not appear visually with the nine exclusive senatorial candidates of UNA in its ads. But we included their names in the last part of UNA’s TV ads,” he said.

Tiangco said it would have been different if UNA invited Poe-Llamanzares, Escudero and Legarda to join the TV ad and they turned it down.

“So, if they were invited by the LP and they agreed to appear, I cannot take it against them. It would have been a different story if UNA invited them and they declined and then they agreed to appear in the LP ad,” he said.

Tiangco said UNA decided not to include the three senatoriables so as to allow the nine other candidates more airtime.

“If you divided 60 seconds by 12 candidates, then that means less airtime for our nine UNA exclusive candidates than if the 60 seconds was divided and used only for our nine exclusive candidates,” Tiangco explained.