Political revenues

Despite repeated reminders and warning by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), candidates in the coming May 13 elections still manage to go around the campaign restrictions. These we are now seeing in the campaign posters and tarpaulins that have cropped up all over the place.

This is not to mention the campaign jingles on radio and TV spots at prime time. Even long before the official campaign period took effect, a number of these obviously moneyed senatorial candidates have already been coming out on TV under the guise of their supposed advocacies ranging from pro-environment causes to education and clean and free elections, etcetera.

This will test the mettle of the seven-man Comelec under the present administration, all of whom are now appointees of President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III. In particular, it rests squarely upon the shoulders of Sixto Brillantes as Comelec chairman.

Incidentally, President Aquino has yet to fill the two vacancies at the Comelec even as the May 13 midterm elections are just around the corner.

Actually, the 90-day official campaign period for the national elections began only last Tuesday. The two major alliances kicked off their respective campaign salvos with the traditional proclamation rallies.

The administration Liberal Party (LP)-led senatorial ticket presented their complete lineup at the Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila. No less than President Aquino was there to lend to his 12 anointed senatorial candidates the political capital he has so far accumulated since day one in office.

President Aquino vowed to find time to personally campaign for the LP-led senatorial ticket and squeeze them in his provincial sorties as he did yesterday in Laguna. In his absence in their campaign sorties, P-Noy gave the go-signal for his Cabinet members to help pitch for Aquino-backed candidates. Who will run the business of governance during this period?

The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), on the other hand, held their proclamation rally in Cebu City. Vice President Jejomar Binay, equally popular as P-Noy survey-wise, raised the hands of the nine senatorial aspirants of their coalition who included his daughter Nancy.

VP Binay was joined in Cebu by fellow UNA leaders, Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and former President Joseph Estrada. Their respective sons are in the UNA senatorial ticket, too, namely, Cagayan Rep. Jackie Enrile and San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito.

Like P-Noy, the Vice President must also make sure his extra-curricular political activities should not get in the way of his official duties and functions. Since the 15th Congress is on recess for the duration of the election period, the Senate president has all the time to campaign for his son. However, the Senate president — who turned 89 years old yesterday — could not possibly risk his state of health with the rigors of these provincial sorties.    

Although no longer in any government service, 75-year-old ex-President Estrada could not always attend UNA campaign sorties in the provinces. Much more so when the campaign period for local candidates starts on March 29. Mr. Estrada is himself also running in Manila against incumbent re-electionist Mayor Alfredo Lim.

So for all intents and purposes, the best and easiest way to do it is to campaign through media, in particular in print, radio and TV ads. But this definitely is very costly if candidates want to reach as many potential voters as they can all over the country.

Aside from cost implications, candidates also have to deal with the strict provisions of the Omnibus Election Code as well as special laws that regulate our electoral process. One of these laws is Republic Act (RA) 9006, or the Fair Election Act that strictly spelled out how much ads in print, radio and TV each candidate and each political party is allowed to spend during the entire campaign period.

What further compounds the situation of candidates is the ever-changing rules and regulations of the Comelec in the enforcement of RA 9006 and other election laws. And most recently, media entity owners are now the ones complaining over the latest set of new ad campaign rules issued by the Comelec.

In fact, the Brillantes Comelec has been taken to the Supreme Court (SC) by broadcast giant GMA-7 Network Corp. and ABC Development Corp., parent company of Manny Pangilinan’s TV5 network. The two major TV networks sought the intervention of the SC to issue an immediate temporary restraining order against the Comelec from imposing limit on airtime advertisements in television and radio of candidates running in the May 13 polls.

Even as the campaign period started already, the SC appeared to be also not in a hurry to resolve the twin petitions of the two TV/radio networks. 

This particular Comelec rule gives national candidates only 120 minutes in all TV networks and 180 minutes in all radio stations, while local candidates only 60 minutes in all TV networks and 90 minutes in all radio stations. It used to be per station basis.

The rationale behind this Comelec rule is to level the playing field between the haves and have-nots among the candidates. Naturally, only those moneyed candidates could afford such expensive ad campaigns on radio and TV.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), in support of the networks, argued that this Comelec rule would only jeopardize public interest, editorial independence, and even the health of political candidates.

Brillantes brushed aside these arguments, citing it is really not about freedom of expression but a matter of revenues of media entities.

GMA-7 big boss, Atty. Felipe Gozon admitted this new Comelec airtime limit would seriously impair revenue intake of their network from campaign ads. During the May 2010 presidential and senatorial elections, Gozon disclosed GMA-7 generated close to P2 billion in revenues from political ads alone.

In the 2010 election, Gozon noted the candidates who placed the most ad campaigns on TV landed in the top ten in the Senate race. In this coming May election, Gozon said, currently leading in ad campaign placements include former Rep. Cynthia Villar and Nancy Binay. Gozon believes these two bets along with survey toppers Loren Legarda and Chiz Escudero, would definitely figure in the top ten in this Senate race.

Obviously, these ad campaign expenses are political revenues that could determine the outcome of elections.