Payback culture

A joint “massive offensive” was launched yesterday by the Commission on Elections, the police and other government agencies to take down illegal campaign materials nationwide.

Candidates must be crying ouch!

A tarpaulin large enough to be seen half a kilometer away costs about P70,000. Billboard space rental for such a tarp in Metro Manila can cost P70,000 for two months.

This is according to former presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who recently dropped out of the Senate race after he had to undergo angioplasty. He now has two titanium stents in heart valves that had “widowmaker” blockages.

Harry admits bitterness over being forced by his health problem to withdraw from his first Senate bid – after he had already spent on his campaign ads. “It cost me a lot of money,” he sighed.

Facing The Chiefs last Tuesday on Cignal TV’s One News, Harry disputed a report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism that he was the fourth biggest campaign spender until his health forced him to withdraw his bid. Citing data from a media tracker, PCIJ had reported that Roque spent P174 million for campaign advertising.

Harry told us that such figures, mostly going to TV ads, were inflated by about 700 percent for discount purposes. He would not cite a specific figure, but he said his actual expenditures were only “a fraction” of the P174 million. He promised to disclose the actual amount once he has the supporting documents. At this point, he finds the story somewhat amusing: “Let them think I’m rich.”

While maintaining that the amount he spent was “nowhere close” to P174 million, he said, “I really don’t want to think about it because I might go back to the hospital.”

I told him that Senate candidates in the 2016 elections had said they needed P150 million for their campaign. This time, he said a candidate needs an average of P500 million for a Senate run. In his case, he said he was told he needed about P300 million. Some candidates may shell out up to P1 billion, he said.

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Of course, except for a few billionaires in government who can bankroll their own campaigns with ample money to spare, the typical candidate must depend on contributions from kind souls.

In Harry’s case, he said he got contributions from his wife and other relatives to add to his savings from 30 years of private law practice – but it still wasn’t enough. So he was pleasantly surprised that some businessmen offered to donate to his campaign. He stressed that he accepted the donations only after he had resigned from government and declared his candidacy in October – meaning he did not violate anti-graft laws prohibiting public officials from accepting such funds.

As a party-list congressman, Harry had filed a bill to regulate such campaign contributions, which the Commission on Elections (Comelec) does not monitor – and in reality cannot monitor, since there are no official receipts or records for such transactions.

But his bill, like previous attempts to regulate campaign finance, ended up in the dust heap.

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With no regulation, and with the Comelec unable to keep track of even the identities of campaign donors, the sky’s the limit for the types of payback that donors might demand.

In the absence of rules, even the most idealistic candidates must live with the reality that to advance their worthy causes, they must first win. They need money to win, and it’s an enormous amount of money, which they typically don’t have on their own, so they will have to accept contributions from others.

“That’s the reality,” Roque told us. “Unless you spend money, you will not be elected… if you don’t do it, you will end up a loser.”

And the reality is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this country when it comes to campaign donations. In the US, where the political party system is strong, people vote along party lines, for the advocacies and positions taken by the party. Ordinary folks contribute even small amounts to the campaigns of their candidates, with the donors’ names and amounts donated duly recorded.

In our country where there is no real party system to speak of, campaign donations are seen mainly as investments, with the investor expecting handsome returns.

“Come election period, the businessmen do gamble,” Harry told us. “They invest in people and they want payback.”

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What sort of payback? At the House of Representatives, a.k.a. the HOR, Harry cited immense lobbying in the committee on ways and means for what he said were business tax breaks and franchise approvals.

“I saw this firsthand,” Harry said.

Now you know why HOR members want a say on any enterprise that might be covered by a franchise.

Occasionally, Harry was told that money was being given away in some HOR office or room. He said a typical call went something like, “Pumunta ka na kay congressman X, nagbibigayan na.” The average amount was P200,000; he said he never accepted.

What if it had been P20 million? He might have accepted, Harry quipped. He admitted that he considered becoming a whistle-blower or filing a case against his colleagues in connection with this HOR “culture.” But the lawyer in him noted that since he didn’t receive any tainted public funds, he didn’t have personal knowledge so his testimony might be tossed out as hearsay.

“If you squeal,” Harry told us, “everyone will pounce on you.”

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Would it help if the country regulated lobbying, as it is in the US?

Harry said it would legitimize a questionable activity and such legislation might be inconsistent with existing laws against graft and corruption.

“To regulate it is to legitimize something that I consider to be wrong,” he told us.

These days he has time to ponder this issue as he continues his recovery. Roque, who left the hospital just four days after his surgery, is looking much rejuvenated. He describes himself as a “gentleman of leisure,” with time to tend an organic strawberry farm (1,000 square meters) and a small plot of Malaysian chrysanthemums in Tuba, Benguet.

Has he retired from politics? He’s on a “hiatus,” he told us. “I’m relishing every moment of it, believe it or not.”

Of course he regrets missing the chance to push for his reform advocacies at the Senate. But perhaps some of the candidates with similar causes will make it, and manage not to be swallowed up by the payback culture.

“That’s why you have to choose your candidate well,” Harry said.