SC strikes down Comelec airtime limit on poll ads

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has struck down the limits imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on campaign advertisements on television and radio of candidates in the 2013 elections.

SC spokesman Theodore Te said the justices of the high court voted unanimously in session yesterday to partially grant the petitions filed by GMA Network Corp., ABC Development Corp. and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

The high court declared unconstitutional Section 9(a) of Comelec Resolution 9615 as amended by Resolution 9631, which gives national candidates 120 minutes in aggregate airtime on TV networks and 180 minutes in radio stations, and local candidates 60 minutes in TV networks and 90 minutes in radio stations.

The SC has made permanent the temporary restraining order it issued on April 16 last year stopping the implementation of the assailed portion of the Comelec resolution.

The decision effectively requires the poll body to revert to its previous ruling allowing national bets to have 120 minutes airtime in each TV network.

Te said the high tribunal cited the arbitrary manner by which Comelec changed the previous regulation from per station to aggregate total; violation of freedom of expression, speech and of the press; violation of the people’s right to suffrage, and the absence of prior hearing before adoption.

“The court sustained the other challenged sections of the resolution because it did not impose an unreasonable burden on the broadcast industry and the provision of the right to reply is reasonable under the circumstances,” he added.

Petitioners had argued the limits imposed by Comelec on the number of minutes for a national or local candidate’s broadcast campaign through Resolution 9615 and 9631 were “too restrictive.”

They also questioned the Comelec rule on prior notice for newscasts, interviews and guestings of candidates for purposes of monitoring.

Petitioners alleged that the assailed rule “is unconstitutional because it constitutes prior restraint on the freedom of speech, expression and the press.”

‘SC erred’

The Comelec refused to comment on the SC ruling pending receipt of a copy of the resolution.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of poll watchdog Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms, said the SC erred in its decision, adding that it could make the 2016 elections “much more expensive.”

“SC is wrong because there is a law supporting the Comelec resolution. Something is wrong with the way SC had interpreted the law,” he said, referring to Republic Act 9006 or the Fair Elections Act of 2001.

Casiple added the Comelec was right in counting the airtime limits of the candidates’ campaign ads based on “aggregate total” and not on “per station” basis.

But he said the poll body had different interpretations of the law that led to resolutions favoring the “per station” and “per region” basis.

“The intention of the law is to level the playing field among all candidates. I know because I was part of the technical working group that formulated that... But the Comelec, even before (former Comelec chairman Benjamin) Abalos, had re-interpreted the law, maybe due to the lobbying of influential people. This is what happened,” he added. – With Sheila Crisostomo