MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) clarified its earlier resolution requiring broadcast stations to get permission before inviting candidates to their shows, saying that it was more of a “prior notice” for monitoring purposes.
“We are discussing that now [and] we want to come out with a clarificatory resolution,” Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. told reporters Tuesday.
“Prior consent should not be interpreted as an express consent coming from the commission, it’s just a prior notice that they are going to interview [certain candidates]. We cannot regulate the interview; we will just monitor the interview and check whether it could fall under a campaign propaganda or a legitimate interview on issues or a legitimate news,” Brillantes said.
The Comelec en banc had previously released its rules and guidelines for political advertisements and campaign propaganda.
Section 9 of the resolution stated that before a candidate can appear as a guest on a program “the broadcast stations or entities must show that: (1) prior approval of the Commission was secured; and (2) candidates and parties were afforded equal opportunities to promote their candidacy. ”
Brillantes clarified that “it’s for prior notice only. Consent can be interpreted as ‘you cannot interview without our permission,’ [but] that was not the intention.”
“The intention is to give us notice so we can watch it and check whether it would fall under election campaign propaganda,” Brillantes said.
He also clarified the issue of the airtime limit for national candidates, which the Comelec said was a total of 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio regardless of broadcast station.
“The airtime limit will no longer change, unless the Supreme Court tells us otherwise,” Brillantes said.
The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) has previously submitted to the Comelec a position paper urging it to return to the previous interpretation of that the airtime was on a “per station” basis.
“The rules already implemented by the [Comelec] in previous elections … [for] allowable airtime [of] political ads was interpreted as ‘per station’,” Ruperto Nicdao Jr., Chairman of KBP, said in the letter.
“It is clear that the Senate intended that the allowable airtime for political advertisements be computed on a per station basis and not as an aggregate of airtime of all station. A different manner of interpreting the limit on political advertising time will not only result in unfairness but will discourage candidates from using the mass media to present their qualifications and platform to the electorate cost-effectively,” Nicdao said.
Brillantes, when asked about why they decided to change the airtime rules into aggregate of all stations, he said that “we [saw media was already heavily] saturated with propaganda in the 2010 and previous elections.”
He said that if the “per station” rule will be used, candidates are sure to surpass the financial expenses limit.
When told about KBP’s plan to file a Motion for Reconsideration (MR), Brillantes said that “we generally don’t consider MRs, I don’t understand why KBP is against the airtime [rule], it should be the candidates questioning it.”