Senators exceeded campaign fund, broadcast time limits
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:03:00 08/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Several senators, including three presidential aspirants, violated election laws on campaign advertisement spending and radio and television airtime limits during the 2007 mid-term elections, a study by an election watchdog said on Wednesday.
Pera't Pulitika (Money and Politics), an umbrella group of several civil society organizations that monitors election financing, said there were seven senatorial candidates -- six of them from the administration slate -- who exceeded the P135-million limit on campaign spending.
The violators were led by ex-congressman Prospero Pichay, with an estimated spending of P224 million, the highest among the candidates.
Pichay was followed by Senator Manuel Villar (P212 million), Senator Joker Arroyo (P178.5 million), Senator Edgardo Angara (P164 million) and Mike Defensor (P143 million). Senator Loren Legarda was the only opposition senator in the mix, with P146.8 million.
Interestingly, none of the candidates said they exceeded the limit in their report to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the group said.
Vincent Lazatin, PaP co-convener, said there was a “great difference” in the findings of the group, which was based on the data from Nielsen media ratings and the Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the documents filed by the candidates.
“What is alarming is that no one violated air time limits and no one overspent in the last elections, if based on the legislators' reports to the Commission on Elections,” he said.
Pichay, in his submitted documents to the poll body, disclosed that he spent only P89 million in his campaign, Lazatin said.
Aside from putting a cap on ad spending, the Fair Election Act also allows a candidate running for national office 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio exposure in the entire campaign period.
The seven senators who exceeded television air time limits were: Senators Joker Arroyo (289 minutes), Angara (251 minutes), Villar (243 minutes), Francis Pangilinan (181 minutes), Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III (165 minutes), Juan Miguel Zubiri (153 minutes) and Loren Legarda (146 minutes).
Except for Pangilinan and Aquino, the senators mentioned above also went beyond the allowable radio airtime limit. Villar had the greatest radio exposure with 7,883 minutes.
Trailing him were: Zubiri (5,315 minutes), Legarda (4,371 minutes), Angara (4,170 minutes), and Arroyo (3,061 minutes.) Neophyte Sen. Francis Escudero of the opposition bloc also joined the radio airtime violators, with 3,983 minutes.
Of all the candidates and senators mentioned, Legarda, Villar, and Escudero reportedly have plans to run for the president in 2010.
The PaP study, which was a pilot research, did not include the sources of the campaign funds, but representatives of the group said they hoped to include such data in the next elections.
Staggering amounts of funds poured in the 2007 elections, Lazatin said. He noted that media spending in the 2007 polls was “2 ˝ times larger than the costs in 2004 for all media and candidates.”
But the expense did not easily translate to victory, Lazatin said. “The poster boy for this is Prospero Pichay. He spent a large amount of money and ended 16th in the senatorial race,” he said.
Professor Edna Co, of the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration, said the study showed the weaknesses in the election system, which should be addressed in time for the 2010 national elections.
“Will we allow this to happen again in 2010? We hope not,” Co said.
With the release of the 2007 campaign spending report, PaP said it hoped that candidates in the 2010 elections would follow the laws on spending and exposure, which were meant to level the playing field among the candidates.
The group stressed that the Comelec should enforce laws on campaign costs and clarify the provisions on TV and radio airtime caps.
According to the group, some candidates interpret the limit as “per channel” or “per region,” and not as the total allowable time for the entire campaign.
PaP also suggested that Comelec establish a department dedicated to monitoring election and campaign spending.
In response to the report, Comelec legal department chief Ferdinand Rafanan said it was difficult for the poll body to run after violators because the documents they submitted to the Comelec showed that they did not breach campaign laws.
However, Rafanan said politicians should be more transparent in their records.
He said candidates that were found to have falsified their Comelec reports could be charged criminally and disqualified from running for public office.
|
