Pera at Pulitika Presscon

I attended a presscon for the first time yesterday, April 13, 2010 at Annabel's along Tomas Morato. The presscon was sponsored by the Pera at Pulitika (PAP) network on political advertisements. The PCIJ is an affiliate of the PAP network. PAP aims to monitor the campaign finance issues of the candidates running this May 2010 election. Our supervisor invited me together with my fellow interns to attend the said presscon. Ms. Malou Mangahas, Executive Director of PCIJ; Mr. Eric Barrera, Director for Client Service from AC Nielsen; Atty. Louie Guia and another lawyer spoke on issues about the overspending of the Presidentiables specifically Aquino and Villar. The representative from AC Nielsen presented figures which projected the increase in the expenditures of the Presidentiables. From February 10 to March 31 of this year, Manny Villar already spent P223,533,407 for his political ads. Noynoy Aquino on the other hand spent P127.18 million for his campaign ads. The two candidates are said to have exceeded already their allowable air time for their advertisements. That is why the Nacionalista Party already donated 120 minutes of their alloted air time to Villar while the Liberal Party donated 60 minutes to Aquino. Aside from the overspending of the candidates in their political ads, another concern raised in the conference was the issue that the LP and the NP have been allowing other candidates to use their air time despite the fact that they have already donated their air time for Aquino and Villar respectively. There seems to be confusion in terms of the agreement made by the two parties and their respective bets in terms of their use of the air time. The PAP is looking forward to addressing the issue to the COMELEC for them to regulate the laws regarding the spending of candidates and the agreements being made by the parties on their air time for advertisements.

Personally, I believe that both issues need to be given attention not only by the COMELEC but also by the voters. It is important for the people to be aware of the glitches of the political parties and the candidates running for position this coming election. In this manner, they will be able to see and check whether or not the candidate they will choose is worthy of their vote.

I enjoyed the presscon. I learned a lot and while I was there, I felt as if I was already doing a coverage for a beat report in real life. I'm looking forward to more press conferences and I'm sure I'll be learning a lot from this organization. :)