Watch out for ‘pampams,’ poll watchdog asks voters

Watch out for the “pampams” of the 2016 elections.

A play on the Filipino word “papansin” (attention seeker), pampam also means prostitute.

A poll watchdog recently launched on Facebook a shame campaign against overeager politicians engaging in early self-promotion for the coming balloting.

Dubbed “Eleksyon 2016 Pampams,” the Facebook page of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) now has about a hundred entries—photos and videos of politicians engaging in “early campaigning.”

In a statement issued Thursday, Namfrel said candidates branded as pampams were those “who project themselves via tarpaulins posted on wires, posts and walls, congratulating or announcing some event; or on social media sites, radio and TV ads, adding their names to public service projects such as conditional cash transfer, PhilHealth cards, relief goods distribution and vaccination campaigns, etc.”

“So far, those who have been featured in paid advertisements on national television are some of the top national and local politicians as well as bureaucrats,” Namfrel said.

“Most page postings are flagrant violations of local officials and prospective candidates,” it added.

The group encouraged citizens to send pictures or videos of these candidates to the Facebook page and use Twitter using the hashtag #pampam.

Namfrel’s shame campaign was apparently in response to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Andres Bautista’s call for civil society groups and poll watchdogs to stoke the moral sensibilities of the public against “epal” candidates in the absence of a law prohibiting potential candidates from premature self-promotion.

Jurisprudence, particularly the landmark decision of the Supreme Court on Peñera v. Comelec in 2009, has virtually erased the concept of premature image-building and self-promotion as an election offense.

At the launch of the “Meet the Inquirer Multimedia” forum on Tuesday, Bautista said there was “no such animal as premature campaigning” and such a loophole in the law can only be addressed through an amendment.

Without a law on early self-promotion, Bautista said voters and media companies should instead use their moral compass in judging the so-called epal candidates who air infomercials early on.

“Perhaps voters should take these infomercials into account when they are deciding whom to vote for,” Bautista said. “But if broadcast stations think it’s morally wrong, maybe they should stop accepting these kinds of infomercial as well,” he added.–Jocelyn R. Uy

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