GMA ‘spends’ P845M on ads,
tops list of gov’t ad buyers
THE PERSISTENTLY unpopular President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may be proof that sometimes advertising just doesn’t work.
In early April, or just a little more than two months before Arroyo is supposed to step down, yet another Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey had her posting a net satisfactory rating of -53 (satisfactory minus unsatisfactory) -- her worst showing yet in her nine years as the country’s chief executive.
This is even as tarpaulins with the president’s face adorn just about every government project across the country while ads praising her accomplishments can be found in the inside pages of many broadsheets, with ...
APO, gov’t press, printing
campaign materials of bets
First of Two Parts
THE ELECTION Code is clear: Any printing press owned or controlled by the government is prohibited from being used in any election campaign or partisan political activity.
The penalties for officials of such an entity caught in violation of the law range from one to six years jail term without probation, along with disqualification from public office and forfeiture of the right of suffrage.
A printing press at APO. Photo by Tita C. Valderama. View slideshow of APO Production Unit, Inc.
But some officials of the APO Production Unit, Inc., which is under the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), say the ...
Agra cheated in law school – Professor
WHO IS lying and who is telling the truth?
The former professor of acting Justice Secretary Alberto C. Agra has finally spoken to refute his student's claim that he was exonerated of cheating in a law subject exam, which he took 22 years ago at the Ateneo de Manila University Law School.
Atty. Avelino Sebastian Jr. said that if Agra was indeed exonerated by the school’s investigating committee that inquired into the reported cheating, how then could the acting justice secretary explain why was Agra the only one who flunked the Wills and Succession subject in 1988, out of seven students who ...
The College Lives of the
Presidential Candidates
Our latest offering is a series of stories about the gigs, gimmicks and exploits in college of three candidates for president -- the Liberal Party's Benigno C. Aquino III, the Nacionalista Party's Manuel B. Villar Jr., and the Lakas-Kampi's Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.
These stories were written by communication students who are now working with the PCIJ on internship basis. We sent them out to field to discover how these candidates were like when they were students their age.
Our interns interviewed close friends and buddies of the candidates to get anecdotes and insights into the youthful persona of our subjects. ...
‘Dark Side’ of elections
stalks bloggers, techies
Last of Two Parts
FOR NETIZENS already inured to the sight of presidential candidate Manuel ‘Manny’ Villar Jr. peering back at them from what should be their private Facebook or email pages, what’s one more Villar ad? Already acknowledged as the biggest spender in the 2010 presidential race, Villar has established a broadcast and online presence that is simply overwhelming.
[caption id="attachment_3272" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Manny Villar's ad was Photoshopped onto a screenshot of a porn site"][/caption]
So when a supposed Internet screenshot featuring Villar began circulating via email last February, Netizens were uncertain if they should sound the alarm, or just shrug it ...
Online, bets wage war
sans rules, cap on costs
WHAT regulations?
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may be keeping tab on political ads in the broadcast and print media, but so far it has refrained from issuing guidelines on online campaigning. This has helped lead to a digital free-for-all among candidates in the upcoming polls who have made the so-called New Media yet another battleground for votes.
[caption id="attachment_3249" align="alignright" width="253" caption="A typical page on Facebook littered with political ads"][/caption]
These days, the number of Filipino Internet users is pegged at around 24 million and mobile phone users at around 63 million. Not surprisingly, candidates for both national and local posts have ...
Shamefully rich, clan has
35 houses, fleet of wheels
First of Three Parts
MAURA Montano doesn’t live in General Santos City anymore – not after the family breadwinner, Montano’s daughter Marife or ‘Neneng,’ who worked at radio station DXCP and Saksi Balita, was killed along with 57 others in Ampatuan, Maguindanao last November. Montano and Neneng’s two children have had to move to Alabel, Sarangani to live with Neneng’s brother because the sextagenarian lola has no means to pay rent and raise her orphaned grandchildren.
ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan (in white) escorts brother Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., (head covered, beside Col. Medardo Geslani) to present him to ...
War on the air waves: 6 top
bets spend P1-B on ‘pol ads’
First of Two Parts
IF the law on campaign spending and political advertising were imposed before the official campaign period began last week, one presidential candidate would have already overspent in the past three months alone, even as he joins four others who would have exceeded the broadcast limit for TV.
Data from media monitoring agency Nielsen Media also reveal that from November 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010, or three months before the campaign period officially kicked off on February 9, the total advertising values for TV, radio, and print of just six of the 10 presidential candidates have already amounted ...
Mining mayhem triggers
eco-disaster in Zambales
First of Two Parts
STA. CRUZ, ZAMBALES – Nickel is not doing too well in the world market these days, but residents here do not seem to mind, even though nickel has become one of this town’s major revenue earners.
That’s because whenever nickel commands top dollar, red dust smothers the town’s main highway and the pier, and red mud cakes the roads. Residents also have to share their small barangay roads with huge, lumbering trucks, and when rains come, floodwaters the color of blood fill their ricefields. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, armed guards hired by mining firms menace real and ...
Gloria gets richer fastest,
beats Cory, Ramos, Erap
A FORTNIGHT ago in her ninth State of the Nation Address, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo fired sharp, staccato broadsides at her critics, and in a tone bold and boastful declared: “I am falsely accused, without proof, of using my position for personal profit.”
“There isn’t a day,” she said, “I do not work at my job or a waking moment when I do not think through a work-related problem. Even my critics cannot begrudge the long hours I put in.”
Series on Arroyo wealth
Gloria gets richer fastest, beats Cory, Ramos, Erap
The foggy financial history of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Government spends P45m on road to ...
No one in journalism will deny that media corruption exists. There is contention only in the extent of the corruption and the damage it causes. This book, a sequel to the 1998 publication, which is also entitled News for Sale, documents corruption as it takes place in the single most important political exercise in a democracy: elections.
