Raps vs ASO jingle unnecessary – JV

The Genuine Opposition (GO) said the threats of libel and slander from re-electionist Sen. Edgardo Angara and former senators Vicente Sotto III and Tessie Aquino-Oreta whose acronym was used in the opposition’s jingle entitled "ASO" were unnecessary.

GO executive committee of elders member and former senator Ernesto Maceda said yesterday that their harsh reaction is a clear indication of guilt.

Maceda said the ASO jingle, which followed the tune of the 1950s hit song "How Much is that Doggie in the Window," is not intended to hit anyone.

"The people who are complaining against the opposition’s jingle now known as ASO, are apparently admitting that they are the ASO," Maceda said.

But opposition campaign manager San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito adopted a more reconciliatory attitude even as he denied the jingle was written by his father, former President Joseph Estrada.

Angara, Sotto and Oreta, who are now seeking to be re-elected as senators under the administration’s Team Unity, earlier cried foul over the jingle officially released and first played by the GO during its proclamation rally last Feb. 24.

"That is a brazen act. They are saying that I am a bribe-taker. How dare they say that? If I call them thieves that is also libelous," Angara said.

Ejercito tried to dissuade Angara from the filing of charges against the person responsible for the ASO jingle.

"I think it is not necessary," Ejercito said.

Sotto and Oreta both expressed doubts the former president wrote the lyrics of the song.

Actor Rez Cortez, a supporter of the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., who released the jingle to the media said the song was written by a Poe supporter.

Cortez also told a radio interview in Manila that he was ready to face charges to be filed by Angara.

In an interview over dzBB, he said he is ready to face charges, insisting that he did not do anything wrong or offensive by releasing copies of the jingle.

Cortez said many of Poe’s supporters are angry at the three even during the 2004 elections, when the trio allegedly insisted on brokering deals.

The three who were staunch allies of the former president in the Senate jumped to the administration’s Team Unity slate. Their surnames form the acronym "ASO," meaning "dog" in Filipino.

For its part, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) yesterday expressed their objection to the derogatory use of the word "ASO" in the campaign jingle.

PAWS program director Ana Cabrera said they are offended that dogs are being compared to "detestable politicians."

"The comparison demeans dogs and it is highly offensive to animal welfare advocates who have been working hard to promote and uplift the image of the animal," she said. –Jose Rodel Clapano, Christina Mendez, Evelyn Macairan