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While you are watching the early evening TV newscast,
Manny Villar suddenly appears on the screen. He is visiting a
dilapidated house with a leaking roof in Moriones, Tondo. He tells
you that he and his eight siblings grew up in that house. Then an
elderly lady thanks Villar for making her dream of owning a house a
reality.
A few minutes later on the same
newscast, Mar Roxas is seen pedaling a pedicab. In his
“padyak-padyak” commercial, he tells the young boy, the regular
pedicab driver, not to lose hope. His parting words are “Hindi ko
kayo pababayaan,” a spin from the funereal song, “Hindi kita
malilimutan,” a bad omen for Roxas’ presidential ambition.
Then, the face of Mayor Jejomar
Binay of Makati is splashed on the screen with testimonials of the
sick, the elderly, and schoolchildren, the supposed beneficiaries of
Binay’s “welfare state” style of governance in Makati. His
commercial is dubbed “Ganito kami sa Makati, Ganito Sana sa Buong
Bansa.”
Another TV newscast is
interrupted by Vice President Noli de Castro who urges everyone to
take advantage of the government’s low-interest housing loans and
the restructuring program of Pag-IBIG for delinquent borrowers.
Other latecomers but with the
same vacuous TV campaign ads are Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro
telling everybody to prepare for calamities and disasters, Sen.
Loren Legarda with her “pagkain, hindi Cha-cha; trabaho, hindi
Cha-cha . . . aalagaan ko kayo” commercial, and MMDA Chairman
Bayani Fernando who styles himself as the Lee Kuan Yew of the
Philippines (translation: likoanniyo or U-turn slots with concrete
barriers that have caused the death of several motorists).
These commercials, which are
repeated over and over again on radio, are irritating, disgusting,
suffocating and nauseating. Because they are so crudely done without
any cerebral message, they not only pollute the airwaves but also
insult our intelligence.
Why do we have to suffer these
inanities? Can the authorities not do something to stop this cruel
insensitivity to public opinion displayed by our publicity-hungry
politicians?
Stupid provision
Unfortunately for us, the
authorities cannot do anything because of the stupid provision of
the Omnibus Election Code.
Even if everybody knows that they
are already campaigning and some of them have even announced their
intention to run for president, the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
has said that they are not legally considered candidates because
they have not yet filed their certificates of candidacy.
Section 79 of the Omnibus
Election Code states that an individual may be considered a
candidate only if he or she has filed a certificate of candidacy
before the Comelec. The filing of the certificate of candidacy for
president is still on November this year.
This issue was settled last year
when the Comelec junked the petition of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago
to declare the appearance of politicians in commercial
advertisements as an election offense.
The Comelec said it has no power
to restrict politicians from appearing in advertisements to endorse
products or promote an advocacy because this is not prohibited under
the Omnibus Election Code.
“The commission recognizes that
there is a need to quell the less than noble practices complained of
by the petitioner [Santiago]. However, as the law stands, these
practices cannot be restrained or punished,” the Comelec stressed.
Top spenders, big losers
If the media handlers of the
presidential bets think that the more their candidates are exposed
in the media, the better their chances of winning in next year’s
polls, they should think again.
In the 2007 elections, Prospero
Pichay and Villar were the biggest spenders in political ads. Pichay
spent P151.72 million followed by Villar with P138.28 million. Both
have exceeded the allowable limit of P135 million, computed at P3
per voter of the estimated 45 million votes.
What happened to them?
Pichay was thrashed in the polls
and Villar, despite his massive campaign ads, landed only fourth,
overtaken by Legarda, who placed first, Chiz Escudero and even by
Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
The other big spenders in
political ads who also lost in the 2007 senatorial derby were
Michael Defensor, Tito Sotto, Tessie Aquino-Oreta and Ralph Recto.
On the other hand, Antonio Trillanes 4th, who did not have any
campaign ad and was unable to campaign because he was and is still
detained, was number 11.
What to do?
These political ads will become
more frequent and more annoying when election campaign starts. But
unless the election law is amended, we are helpless.
Henrietta de Villa, chairman of
the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Parish
Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, said that the best way to
show our outrage over the premature campaigning and circumvention of
the law by these candidates is not to vote for them in the 2010
elections.
I agree with her and I think that
this is what we should all do when we enter the polling booths next
year.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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