Campaign time

Amid the Sinulog hoopla punctuated yesterday by President Benigno Aquino III’s greeting of “Pit Señor!” comes a bit of welcome news for those weary of watching, listening to and reading political advertisements.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruled that each national candidate will only get 120 minutes of airtime for TV and another 120 minutes of airtime on radio or about four hours of broadcast time for every one of them.

Lest they get any ideas, the Comelec extended its restriction on campaigning in cyberspace though guidelines haven’t been fleshed out yet.

This new Comelec rule may help ensure that the airwaves will for, the most part, be free of personality-driven, non-issue campaign advertisements that parlay the candidates’ claimed virtues in order to quietly sweep under the rug all the dirt leveled at them untrue or not.

From plagiarized jingles to endorsements from showbiz stars, national candidates have mobilized resources at their disposal to create commercials that appeal to voters, much the same way advertisements push products and services.

To reinforce their personal branding, candidates created their own Facebook and Twitter accounts to extend their campaign to the online generation.

We’d also like to know how these restrictions would apply to local candidates, not a few of whom own or control radio or television stations and newspapers with considerable reach.

Candidates have ways to skirt around these guidelines.

National and local candidates often raise their profiles by commenting on burning issues of the day so their faces would appear on the 6:30 p.m. news telecast or in the papers the following days.

Then there’s President Aquino firing a broadside against the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) for their out-of-town trips and infomercials as evidenced by their Capitol visit to suspended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

Whatever the effects of the new Comelec guideline, we can take some comfort in the fact that our TV sets won’t be polluted by political commercials that cut into our favorite TV programs.

What we need to see more of are advisories by election watchdogs on how to choose good leaders and how people can guard against vote-buying, intimidation and other dirty tactics employed by politicians.