Pandepaigning

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – Our perennially drunk neighborhood philosopher has coined a new word. He says it is called “pandepaigning” which means prematurely campaigning for public office during an epidemic.
    “You see,” he says, “over the years, some ‘public servants’ have found a way to circumvent the statutory ban against early campaigning. They place expensive political advertisements on television which promote their name, ‘virtues’ and supposed accomplishments.” 
    He explains so long as those advertisements do not explicitly state the politician concerned is running for a particular public office, the advertising scheme cannot be considered premature campaigning as prohibited by election laws.
“    The Supreme Court said so, because the current state of the law does not address this circumvention of the statutory ban against premature campaigning,” he points a shaking finger at the sky during another of our barangay road encounters.
    Under the law, he adds, campaigning for the coming elections should begin only when the official campaign period starts. That’s months away so nobody should be campaigning this early.
    We say so far, in Cordillera, no politician that we know of has started “premature campaigning” except for this guy from the south in a nearby province who has set up roadside tents and tarpaulins with his face prominently displayed asking: “Kailangan yo kadi ti tulong? (Do you need help?),” with his cell and office number down his plug.
    Lawyers say under our constitutional system, the remedy against premature campaigning is not with the courts, but with Congress, which must plug loopholes in the current law.     
    Instead of fixing that loophole, they say politicians exploit this by resorting to early campaigning, but without the “vote for me” part typically found in regular campaign propaganda. 
    Pundits say even with this loophole, candidates for high public office should be decent enough to observe the spirit behind the law and to wait for the official campaign period to begin before engaging in early campaigning.   
    Our philosopher says premature campaigning not only violates the law. “It is an offense against public decency because money, and lots of it, is wasted on politicians’ self-serving advertisements,” he says with the feigned self-righteousness of a local character we know.
    TV advertisements cost millions of pesos to produce, and even more millions of pesos to broadcast, particularly during prime time.  Our philosopher says he has ideas how these politicians recover those expenses after they are elected.      
    Sources say big TV networks will not speak out against this racket.  Those in the know say they profit a lot from the practice.    
    Sleazy candidates have no regard for decency.  This can be seen by the numerous politicians whose advertisements about themselves are proliferating on many TV channels lately.
    Observers say, the first early campaigner was Taguig Rep. and ousted House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, who has at least two different TV advertisements.  
    One advertisement shows “poor Filipinos” complaining about the P1,000 financial assistance given by the government to those economically displaced by the recently instituted enhanced community quarantine.  If only Cayetano had his way, he says dole-out of “poor Filipinos” would have been P10,000.  The commercial ends a smiling Cayetano with his name.  
    Cayetano’s other commercial simply promotes himself as an ideal public servant.  
    This guy has a lot of money to spend.  How does he plan to recover his expenses?
Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares, whose commercials remind viewers that she is the daughter of the late box office king, Fernando Poe, Jr.  Poe accuses the government of wasting money during the pandemic, but she’s now on a spending spree to promote herself.   
    Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s advertisements capitalize on his fame as a boxer and include a claim to being a competent public official. 
    Advertisements of the self-admiring Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagaso cites hard times he went through before he joined show business and politics.  He equates that to his being the champion of the poor folks of his city.  
    Where Moreno got the money to pay for his advertisements, considering his commercials also highlight his “accomplishments” as city mayor, is a foregone conclusion.
    Other politicians engaged in early campaigning on TV are ex-Sen. and incumbent Antique Rep. Loren Legarda, Highways Sec. Mark Villar, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, and former Vice President Jejomar Binay.
    Binay lost big in the 2016 presidential election and lost again when he ran for the House in 2019.  He had been unemployed since 2016.  Where does he get all that money for his commercials?
    Poe, Pacquiao and Domagoso are eyeing the presidency. Cayetano, Legarda, Villar, Zubiri and Binay will run for the Senate.
    These traditional politicians don’t mind spending millions of pesos in their advertisements when many Filipinos are barely surviving the economic difficulties brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
    Pacquiao says, “Pinaghirapan ko yan.” Our philosopher says it would be interesting to hear other politicians explain where they got their millions or billions. But are they talking? Some even don’t want to release their SALN like the top honcho, while the head of a government “graft-busting” body, we and members of local media had coffee with frequently at Luisa’s Resto here along Session Road, says it is okay. SALN anyone? Anybody can see mine. It has only a peso in it. Wipe away that dirty grin from your face.