Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 28)— Members of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to look into the alleged excessive rates charged by some media outlets for campaign advertisements.
In a committee hearing on Friday, Senator Koko Pimentel said he has been receiving complaints from candidates over possible violations of Republic Act No. 11207, which aims to lower the cost of political ads.
“Pinapaboran talaga natin ang political ad because ang nature niya is public service, information in a democracy kailangan eh the citizens must know what is the stand of that candidate,” Pimentel added.
[Translation: We favor political ad because its nature is public service, information in a democracy is needed, the citizens must know what is the stand of that candidate.]
RA 11207, providing amendments to the Fair Election Act, states that media outlets should give candidates 50% discount for TV, 40% for radio, and 10% for print ads.
Under the law, media outlets can give higher discounts as long as the discount given to one candidate will be applied to other candidates for the same position.
However, talent manager Arnold Vegafria admitted that some advertising agencies are able to negotiate for lower rates. Vegafria also owns an advertising company.
“Nobody pays the published rate because every ad agency they have their own negotiated rate depending on the annual budget given to the network,” Vegafria explained.
Pimentel said this may be in violation of the law as rates given to candidates should be the same and not subject to negotiations.
Senators Miguel Zubiri and Imee Marcos agreed.
Zubiri believes some media outlets deliberately raise their advertisement rates prior to an election year so they can charge a high amount even when the mandated discounts are applied.
He said this discriminates against candidates who are not able to raise a lot of campaign funds.
“To our friends in media, we are not out for blood. Ang gusto lang namin (What we want is) we want to attract the best and brightest. Unfortunately the best and brightest do not have deep pockets needed to publish their ads and because of that, we may not always get the best and the brightest!,” Zubiri said.
Efraim Bag-id, acting director of the Comelec Campaign Finance Office, said the poll body will look into the matter.
