Bello takes on Pacquiao over fight buildup

INDEPENDENT senatorial candidate Walden Bello will make good his threat to file a disqualification case against boxer Manny Pacquiao, who is seeking a Senate seat, on the grounds that media coverage of his coming fight constitutes illegal advertising.

In an advisory on Sunday, the Walden Bello for Senator Movement said Bello will file a complaint on Monday against the Sarangani congressman for violating the Commission on Elections (Comelec) rules limiting political advertisements.

“This is a follow-up to Bello’s call last week for Pacquiao to postpone his April 9 match with Timothy Bradley as this would (violate) Comelec rules,” Bello’s lawyer Milabel Cristobal said.

Cristobal said Bello’s move was in response to Comelec Chair Andres Bautista’s statement that the poll body would welcome a formal complaint so it could look into the matter.

Bello claims the massive media coverage of the Pacquiao fight would give the Pacquiao undue advantage in the May elections and violate Comelec Resolution No. 9615.

A 2013 Comelec resolution states: “In broadcast media, political advertisements may take the form of spots, appearances on TV shows and radio programs, live or taped announcements, teasers and other forms of advertising messages or announcements used by commercial advertisers.”

Hours of coverage

This was adopted in the Comelec rules for the 2016 polls.

Bello said in a statement the match would generate hours of coverage which would give Pacquiao “tremendous advantage against most of the other candidates in the Senate race.”

“He should either postpone the fight, or risk being disqualified from the elections,” Bello said. “I’m sure Manny understands the concept of sportsmanship and fair play.”

Bello added: “No one should be above the law. He must reschedule this fight to after May 9, 2016.”

Share of Voice rating

Pacquiao recently made headlines with his remarks on television about same-sex relationships. A social media uproar forced him to apologize for saying gay and lesbian couples were “worse than animals.”

Social media impact tracker TechCellar said Pacquiao had regained lost ground on social media with a Share of Voice (SoV) rating of 75 percent as of Feb. 21.

Pacquiao’s SoV—his aggregate real-time presence in all social media networks—dropped to 18.8 percent on Feb. 16 following his controversial statement, TechCellar data showed.

On Feb. 15, Pacquiao registered a 52-percent SoV on social media, with nearly 1.8 million followers on Twitter, 10.5 million likes on Facebook and 2.7 million followers on Instagram.

Recovery

The loss of more than one million likes on Twitter in one day (Feb. 16) alone triggered the drop in Pacquiao’s SoV, TechCellar general manager Roberto Gantuangco said.

“But Pacquiao was able to recover when Christian community members and the boxer’s fans stood by him,” Gantuangco said.

On Sunday, Pacquiao’s twitter had over 27,000 followers. His Facebook account had steadied with 10.5 million likes, while his Instagram had 2.7 million followers.

The SoV is a computation of real-time aggregate of social media likes, count, mention, followers, tweets and retweets, social network posts and news website coverage, Gantuangco explained.