SC urged to stop limit on poll ads

MANILA, Philippines - GMA Network Corp. asked yesterday the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the limit imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on airtime for advertisements on television and radio of candidates in the May 13 elections.

In a 56-page petition for certiorari, GMA asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) or writ of preliminary injunction enjoining the poll body from implementing its Resolutions 9615 and 9631.

The petitioner argued that the limits imposed by Comelec on the total number of minutes for a national or local candidate’s broadcast campaign were “too restrictive.”

“We raised that the aggregate airtime for political advertisements is restrictive considering that it infringes on the right to suffrage and the right of the people to be informed on important matters and the right of the people to free speech and expression,” Maria Estelita Arles, one of the GMA’s lawyers, told reporters.

The Comelec rule gives national candidates only 120 minutes in all TV networks and 180 minutes in all radio stations while local candidates were allotted only 60 minutes on TV and 90 minutes on radio.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas has also objected to this rule, which allegedly jeopardizes public interest, editorial independence, and even the health of political candidates.  

Meanwhile, the Comelec appealed to all candidates to take down their illegal streamers and posters or face disqualification.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said when the campaign period for candidates for senator and party-list starts on Feb. 12 the poll body would send notices to the aspirants to remind them of the restrictions on campaign materials and areas where they can put up their posters.

The campaign period for local candidates starts on March 30.

“They will now have three days upon receipt of that notice to take down these materials. If they don’t... they will be held liable,” he said.

Jimenez said even if the candidates did not personally put up the campaign materials, the burden of proving this would be on them.

“The thing that they have to be careful about is that there will be presumption that it’s theirs, which means to say the burden will be on them to prove that it was done by someone else,” Jimenez added.

Aside from being disqualified from the race, the candidates who fail to heed the Comelec’s warning also face imprisonment of up to six years.

Public utility vehicles

Jimenez said the political advertisements posted on public utility vehicles (PUVs) must also be removed under Resolution No. 9615 which stipulates the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 7166 or the Fair Elections Act.

But in a latter to the Comelec, party-list 1-United Transport Koalisyon (1-Utak) president Melencio Vargas has asked the poll body to reconsider such prohibition because it curtails the PUV operators’ rights to free speech.

“We seek the honorable commission to reconsider and take a second look on the questioned provisions and allow PUVs and transport terminal owners that are privately owned to post, install and display campaign materials on their vehicles and other private property,” Vargas said.

PUVs refer to buses, jeepneys, trains, taxi cabs, ferries, pedicabs and tricycles, whether motorized or not.

The resolution showed that violations could lead to the revocation of the PUV franchise while the operators may be held liable for election offense.

The group insisted that PUVs “remain to be the property of the operator and/or owner and what is imbued with public interest is not the PUV itself, but its operation.”

1-Utak said that the ownership of the vehicles “is different and independent from the franchise of the operation of the PUVs.”

Jimenez, however, said that PUV operators are holders of a franchise granted by Congress, which “essentially makes the vehicle public in character although its ownership is private.” – With Sheila Crisostomo