Election candidate seeks time limit exemption

By Llanesca T Panti/Manila Times

The airtime for candidates in their advertisements aired over regional television networks should be excluded from the 120-minute limit of such campaigns for all television stations, an independent senatorial candidate said yesterday.

Rep Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna, who is the lone Senate bet of the Makabayan coalition which groups party-list organisations, made the call a day after the Comelec named him as one of the top spenders in television advertisements having consumed 16.5 minutes of the 120 minutes allowed by the Comelec.

Casino ranked fifth behind his rivals Rep Joseph Victor Ejercito (26 minutes), former Senator Richard Gordon and former Senate President Ernesto Maceda (23 minutes) and ex-Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (19.25 minutes).

Casino underscored that it is unfair to put the spots of campaign advertisement aired on national television on the same footing as those aired in regional networks, considering that spots on national television are way too pricey. Casino cited that a 30-second campaign advertisement to be aired in ABS-CBN, which simultaneously airs in 36 provincial TV stations, is worth 538,592 pesos. On the other hand, a 30-second campaign in one of ABS-CBN’s local stations is only worth 24,138 pesos or just 4.5% of the cost of a national television advertisement spot.