BY FRANK LLOYD TIONGSON Reporter (The Manila Times )
Link: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/top-stories/15781-bets-ad-budgets-top-funding-for-govt-hospitals
A consortium of electoral-reform advocates and civil society groups on Wednesday renewed calls for stricter regulation of provisions of the Fair Election Practices Act after they found that spending on advertisements of top contenders for the highest elective posts in the country exceeds that of the government on state hospitals and social services.
The Pera’t Politika (PaP) 2010 Consortium told reporters during a press conference in Quezon City on Wednesday that Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. had spent P273 million on advertisements during the first 60 days of the campaign period and Sen. Bengino “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd, P176 million.
In surveys, Villar and Aquino are the frontrunners in the May 10 elections, which will pick the successor to President Gloria Arroyo.
According to the PaP 2010 Consortium, Villar’s P273 million is more than the allocated budget for state hospitals such as the Quirino Memorial Medical Center with P207 million and the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center with P179 million, among others.
Che de los Reyes, a senior researcher and writer with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), noted, “They [candidates] all claim to be pro-poor, but their [advertisement] spending is more than the budget allocated for poverty-alleviation programs.”
The cited amount also exceeds the budget allocated to various government agencies such as the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the Philippine Commission on Women and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.
Fairer practices
Commenting on the candidates’ extravagant spending on advertisements, lawyer Luie Tito Guia of the Lawyers League for Liberty (LIBERTAS), explained that contenders in the electoral race find ways to circumvent the law in order to maximize their exposure in the media.
Republic Act (RA) 9006, or the Fair Election Practices Act sets limits to the number of advertisements that may be aired over television and radio.
For candidates for president and for political parties, the limit is set at 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio. Spending limits, meanwhile, are set at P10 per voter for the candidates for president.
PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas pointed out that certain “gaps” in the law leads to “creative compliance” by candidates. She cited, for one, that there are no regulations on how to credit the advertisements of political parties featuring several candidates.
Guia, meanwhile, also explained that candidates tend to interpret the law in a “legalistic” manner. Conversely, he noted that the purpose of the law is to “level the playing field” in order to provide equal opportunities for candidates to be exposed to the media.
“It is easy to violate the spirit of the law,” Guia said.
Mangahas maintained that candidates running for the top elective posts in the country should adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the law “even if no one is looking.”
“We don’t want leaders who would say, ‘Puwede naman eh, lulusot naman sa batas [It’s alright, the law can be circumvented],’” she said.
The PaP 2010 Consortium, besides monitoring campaign financing, stressed the need to reform RA 9006 in order to set stricter and clearer regulations regarding campaign financing and to ensure compliance of candidates.
Besides the PCIJ and LIBERTAS, the PaP 2010 Consortium also includes the Consortium on Electoral Reforms and the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines.
Link: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/top-stories/15781-bets-ad-budgets-top-funding-for-govt-hospitals
A consortium of electoral-reform advocates and civil society groups on Wednesday renewed calls for stricter regulation of provisions of the Fair Election Practices Act after they found that spending on advertisements of top contenders for the highest elective posts in the country exceeds that of the government on state hospitals and social services.
The Pera’t Politika (PaP) 2010 Consortium told reporters during a press conference in Quezon City on Wednesday that Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. had spent P273 million on advertisements during the first 60 days of the campaign period and Sen. Bengino “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd, P176 million.
In surveys, Villar and Aquino are the frontrunners in the May 10 elections, which will pick the successor to President Gloria Arroyo.
According to the PaP 2010 Consortium, Villar’s P273 million is more than the allocated budget for state hospitals such as the Quirino Memorial Medical Center with P207 million and the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center with P179 million, among others.
Che de los Reyes, a senior researcher and writer with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), noted, “They [candidates] all claim to be pro-poor, but their [advertisement] spending is more than the budget allocated for poverty-alleviation programs.”
The cited amount also exceeds the budget allocated to various government agencies such as the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the Philippine Commission on Women and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.
Fairer practices
Commenting on the candidates’ extravagant spending on advertisements, lawyer Luie Tito Guia of the Lawyers League for Liberty (LIBERTAS), explained that contenders in the electoral race find ways to circumvent the law in order to maximize their exposure in the media.
Republic Act (RA) 9006, or the Fair Election Practices Act sets limits to the number of advertisements that may be aired over television and radio.
For candidates for president and for political parties, the limit is set at 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio. Spending limits, meanwhile, are set at P10 per voter for the candidates for president.
PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas pointed out that certain “gaps” in the law leads to “creative compliance” by candidates. She cited, for one, that there are no regulations on how to credit the advertisements of political parties featuring several candidates.
Guia, meanwhile, also explained that candidates tend to interpret the law in a “legalistic” manner. Conversely, he noted that the purpose of the law is to “level the playing field” in order to provide equal opportunities for candidates to be exposed to the media.
“It is easy to violate the spirit of the law,” Guia said.
Mangahas maintained that candidates running for the top elective posts in the country should adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the law “even if no one is looking.”
“We don’t want leaders who would say, ‘Puwede naman eh, lulusot naman sa batas [It’s alright, the law can be circumvented],’” she said.
The PaP 2010 Consortium, besides monitoring campaign financing, stressed the need to reform RA 9006 in order to set stricter and clearer regulations regarding campaign financing and to ensure compliance of candidates.
Besides the PCIJ and LIBERTAS, the PaP 2010 Consortium also includes the Consortium on Electoral Reforms and the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines.
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