Pichay, Villar top political ad spenders

THE elections are just 10 days away, and already, senatorial candidates Prospero Pichay and Manuel Villar have “seemingly” exceeded the campaign expenses ceiling, findings of a nongovernmental group monitoring election expenses show.

Pera’t Pulitika (PAP), whose study follows the AC Nielsen report on political advertising in March, explained that under the law, a candidate is allowed to spend P3 per voter. With about 45 million registered voters, a senatoriable is allowed to spend only about P135 million.

But PAP’s findings show that Pichay and Villar have exceeded the P135-million mark on political-ads spending alone.

From February 13 to May 1, 2007, Team Unity’s Pichay, the top spender on political ads, spent about P151.72 million. Villar, the second top spender, spent P138.28 million. Data also show that Pichay and Villar have been heavily spending on television and radio ads.

The PAP, however, said that Villar and Pichay may not have solely spent for their political ads. A political party, whose campaign expenses limit is P5 per voter, may have subsidized the expenses or a donor may have even helped absorb the cost. Still, the fact that candidates like Pichay and Villar are spending so much is worrisome, it added.

Other top spenders include Joker Arroyo, Edgardo Angara, and Tito Sotto of Team Unity; and Genuine Opposition bets Loren Legarda and Panfilo Lacson.

All of these big spenders, except for Pichay, are incidentally in the so-called Magic 12 list based on recent surveys of Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations.

But there are also non-big spenders like independent candidates Francis Pangilinan and Gringo Honasan who made it to the Magic 12. The same goes for GO candidates Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

Overall, PAP’s study shows that TU has spent P919.19 million on political advertisements since campaign started in February. GO, on the other hand, has so far spent P518.88 million. This, PAP said, does not even include expenditures in the next two weeks, where costs are expected to skyrocket as the campaign period draws to a close.

Candidates still prefer television, which is perceived as having the biggest impact. TU, for example, has already spent P819.8 million or 89 percent of its political advertisements on television, while GO shelled out P433.1 million (83 percent).

PAP further reported that Villar had exceeded the allowable airtime for radio ads. As stated in Comelec Resolution No. 7836, a candidate is allowed 1,800 minutes (120 minutes for each of the 15 regions) of air time for television and 2,700 minutes (180 minutes for each region) of air time for radio.

Villar has had 2,766.5 minutes of airtime for radio. Pichay, meanwhile, has had 2,434.3 minutes. Villar and Pichay are also among the candidates with most television airtime used, with 185.5 minutes and 181.8 minutes respectively.

PAP however said that the Commission on Elections provision has been subjected to various interpretations. “How much airtime is too much? The Comelec should help us be clear on this,” said Vinzent Lazatin, co-convenor of PAP and executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network.

While there are seeming violations on elections regulations, PAP said it will not be filing complaints before the Comelec. The group’s purpose, PAP explained, is to gather data on the campaign expenditures of political candidates and later, come up with policy suggestions.

PAP will be releasing two more reports on campaign spending in the run-up to the May 14 elections.

PAP members include the Access to Information Network, Lawyers’ League for Liberty, Consortium on Electoral Reforms, and The Analysts’ Group.

Bernice Camille Bauzon is a junior mass communication student at the St. Scholastica’s College. She is doing her internship with the PCIJ.