Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it will provide a platform for national candidates to conduct virtual meetings or “e-rallies” via livestreams on the agency’s official social media channels.
Under its rules and regulations for the campaign period, the poll body said candidates will be given 3-10 minutes of airtime for their e-rallies, during which they can answer questions from the live comment section.
Comelec said it will be releasing a schedule of the e-rally time slots for the streams that will take place every night beginning Feb. 8, 2022.
The slots will be assigned at random based on a televised raffle on Jan. 8, it added.
Here are the number of slots allotted per candidate:
Presidential: 10 minutes, three slots per night
Vice-Presidential: 10 minutes, three slots per night
Senatorial: 3 minutes, five slots per night
Party-list organizations: 3 minutes, five slots per night
Political parties: 10 minutes, three slots per night.
Comelec also set guidelines on online campaigning, which includes requiring disclaimers that indicate when posts are paid, or free advertisements.
The posts should bear the legible or audible words “political advertisement paid for,” followed by the name and address of the candidate or party that will benefit. It should also include “political advertisement paid by” followed by the name of the payor. The rule also applies to any printed, published, and broadcasted election promotions.
Social media “associates,” including paid digital influencers and online content creators who will use their channels “to promote or defeat the election of a candidate,” are also considered “individual contractors” who are subjected to reportorial requirements, the poll body said. The contractors must submit a form and other documents containing details of their transaction.
Comelec set the campaign period for presidential, vice-presidential, senatorial and party-list group candidates on Feb. 8 until May 7 2022. Meanwhile, the campaign period for candidates of the House of Representatives, regional, provincial, city and municipal posts will be from March 25 to May 7, 2022.
