House OKs cheaper ad rates for candidates

Hoping to level the playing field for candidates, the House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill mandating a 50-percent discount on political advertisement rates during the election period. 

House Bill (HB) No. 6604, which tasks the Commission on Elections with regulating the rates the media can impose on “political propaganda,” was passed on Monday evening with 185 votes in its favor and zero rejections or abstentions.

Television, radio and print media will be mandated to provide a blanket 50-percent discount for “registered political parties and bona fide candidates.”

The bill seeks to prevent media outlets from increasing advertisement rates for a period of one year prior to the start of the campaign period.

The provision closes a supposed loophole in previous attempts to regulate political advertisement rates.

The explanatory notes of the bill’s earlier versions, HB Nos. 4898 and 5922, claimed that media outlets tend to increase rates to offset the mandated discounts.

The bill was sponsored by Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Reps. Sherwin Tugna, John Marvin Nieto (better known by his stage name Yul Servo), Michelle Antonio, Rosanna Vergara, Estrellita Suansing, Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado and Eleanor Bulut-Begtang.

The discounts mandated by the Fair Elections Act are 30 percent for television, 20 percent for radio, and 10 percent for print media.

Fariñas explained in his bill, HB 4898, that the measure “will provide equal opportunity among qualified political candidates,” while Antonio, in HB 5922, blamed “exorbitant rates” for depriving candidates of an “opportunity… to inform the electorate of their qualifications and positions on matters of national significance.” 

Antonio also said high advertisement charges “encourages graft and corruption” by forcing candidates to look for bigtime donors to whom they would be indebted.