Top VP candidates mount
expensive air war, too

Our latest report reveals that in the same pattern of the candidates for president, the top candidates for vice president have also poured in hundreds of millions of pesos into political ads – 90 days before the official campaign period started, and in the first month of the campaign.

This report by PCIJ senior researcher-writer Che delos Reyes shows that except for minor differences – their ranking according to the volume and value of their ads – the candidates for vice president have also demonstrated more tempered spending in the first month of the campaign period. Perhaps this is because the laws on spending and airtime limits have started to be in force beginning February 9.

To validate the advertising values of these ads that Nielsen pegs on the published rate cards of media agencies, the PCIJ also collated and analyzed the documents that media agencies have submitted within deadline  to the Comelec, according to law.

The PCIJ produced this report as part of our commitments to the Pera’t Pulitika (PAP) 2010 Consortium that is focusing on campaign finance issues and reforms. The PAP 2010 includes, apart from the PCIJ, the Consortium on Electoral Reforms (CER), Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines (ASPAP), and the Lawyers’ League for Liberty (Libertas).