Campaign launched to monitor poll expenses

by Reinir Padua (The Philippine Star)

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=550707&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Various groups that include journalists, lawyers and academicians launched yesterday a campaign to monitor the campaign spending of presidential candidates in the May 10 elections.

Roberto Eugenio Cadiz, executive director of the Libertas (Lawyer’s League for Liberty), said their group is one of the convenors of “Pera’t Pulitika 2010,” which would monitor campaign advertisements of the top six candidates for president.

The Pera’t Pulitika 2010 consortium will monitor the campaign spending of Liberal Party presidential bet Sen. Benigno Aquino III, former President Joseph Estrada of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, Bagumbayan Party bet Sen. Richard Gordon, former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. of the administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Jesus is Lord founder Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas, and Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar.
The other presidential candidates – Olongapo City councilor JC de los Reyes, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas and Vetellano Acosta of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan - will not be included in the group’s monitoring.

“We will be using data from the AGB Nielsen Media Research (for television and print advertisements), reports from field monitors in 10 key cities and in-depth stories from investigative journalists,” Cadiz said during a media briefing in Quezon City.

Aside from Libertas, the other members of the consortium are the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Consortium on Electoral Reforms and the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines, Inc.

PCIJ executive director Malou Mangahas, citing a report of the AGB Nielsen Media Research, said the six candidates have already spent more than P2 billion for their political ads on TV, radio, and print media from Nov. 1, 2009 to Jan. 31, 2010, or three months before the campaign period officially started on Feb. 9.

The PCIJ said that about half of that figure represents the advertisements of Villar, even though the limit for a presidential candidate’s maximum campaign expenditure is only P500 million, or P10 per voter.

Villar’s political party may, however, spend another P5 per voter or P250 million, the PCIJ added.

AGB Nielsen’s monitoring of advertising spots and values covers 19 television stations (10 free and nine cable channels), 111 radio stations in 15 areas nationwide, and 54 national and provincial print media outfits.

Nielsen’s data from November 2009 to January 2010 showed that 94 percent of political ad spending went to TV. Radio accounted for six percent and print less than one percent of the candidates’ advertising placements.

The Pera’t Pulitika consortium was first established in 2007 for the purpose of advocating campaign finance regulation in the Philippines.

It monitored campaign spending of the senatorial candidates during the May 2007 elections.

“Unregulated (campaign) spending skews the electoral process and corrupts governance,” Cadiz said.

He said that campaign financing is not just a regulatory issue but also a political issue.

Lawyer Louie Tito Guia of Libertas said campaign financing in the Philippines is not given enough importance such that rules on campaign expenditure and contribution are largely ignored.

He said that there is no unit in the Commission on Elections that is monitoring compliance with the rules on campaign spending. With Helen Flores