TACLOBAN CITY- Senatorial aspirant and Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos ‘pleaded’ with the media entities not to demand what she called ‘outrageous’ advertisement ads.
According to Marcos, who was in the city on Friday(April 12) to woo Waray voters, said that almost 80 percent of candidates campaign funds goes to political advertisements.
And this high cost to place a political ads in the media placed at the disadvantage candidates like her who does not have much to shell out.
“Otsenta porsenyento ang gastos namin nasa inyo, media. Bakit kayo naniningil ng ganyan?Dapat shared public affairs;dapat may information,” she said during a media interview.
She asked the media not to get mad at her with her statement on this issue saying its really ‘true’.
“Mas mayaman ka, kahit papano, nakakagbayad ka,” she said.
It was learned that for a candidate to have a television ad, for example, he or she has to shell out P800,000 per 30 seconds if shown in prime time while a 15-seconder ad will cost P500,000.
Based on the study of Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Marcos has spent P413 million covering the period of January, 2018 to January, 2019.
Former presidential aide, Christopher ‘Bong’ Go was said to have topped the list at P422 million expenditure.
Both Marcos and Go belong to the administration-backed Hugpong ng Pagbabago(HnP).
While Marcos appear to lament on the high cost of media advertisement, she admitted that media exposure remain to be a factor for a candidate, especially those seeking national positions like her.
She said that a 90-day campaign period is not enough to cover the entire Philippines and get the voters nod.
“It’s all about media exposure. Hindi mo maiikot ang buong Pilipinas,” she said.
She added that while she uses the social media as another campaign tool which she said is considerably cheaper compare to the main stream media, ‘even a fan page is being tear down,” she said.
Marcos could be alluding to the case of presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, HnP campaign manager, whose Facebook account was shut down.
The senatorial aspirant then hope for an electoral reform should be done on campaign spending like having the government share the election expenses of candidates, especially the less financial privileged.
Asked how much is her war chest on her senatorial bid, Marcos decline to say though she cited the case of her brother, former senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos when he ran for vice president in 2016.
A PCIJ report has indicated that Bongbong spent P42.8 million television ads on that year.
Outgoing senator Francis Escudero spent the highest at P236 million followed by eventual winner Leni Robredo who spent P225 million.
Meantime, the Ilocos Norte governor said that she hopes that she could get the majority votes of Eastern Visayas, the country’s eight vote-rich region with over 3 million registered voters.
On Friday (April 12), she barnstormed the cities of Ormoc in Leyte; Naval town in Biliran; Catbalogan City in Samar and in Tacloban, the region’s capital city with more than 100,000 registered voters. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
