Before The 2010 Election Campaign

The period for filing of certificates of candidacy for the Philippine 2010 elections ended on December 1, 2009. Then, the national election campaign starts on February 9, 2010 while the local campaign starts on March 26. The advantage of local candidates who are standard bearers of national political parties over independent candidates is that they can visit communities already in February to campaign for national candidates. The Supreme Court in a decision has just decriminalized pre-mature campaigning. One is liable for election offenses only if committed during the campaign period. Of course, crimes related to election such as the November 23, 2009 heinous Maguindanao massacre are covered by particular laws in our penal system and even by international laws at anytime because the savagery committed against the women and men are crimes against humanity and particularly if ( Heavens forbid !) a remedy or appropriate penal sanctions cannot be had in this country. Anyway, the Supreme Court decision decriminalizing pre-mature campaigning also means that television infomercials of candidates are not banned. The reason cited is that it is part of our freedom of expression guarantee as enshrined in our constitution. Of course, who has access to media and mechanisms of communications are another matter. So, before the start of the campaign period, candidates can communicate but must not campaign and never invoke the word VOTE or the like. This includes greetings for the holidays in billboards posted in one’s private property or with the permission of the owner of a private property which does not belong to the candidate.

I have been observing some slogans and prominent infomercials and let me do a paraphrasing here of their core messages. Slogans and messages have been crucial in the past. The “ERAP PARA SA MAHIRAP” ( Erap Estrada is for the poor) worked magic with the masses before. Mar’s ( Roxas) “Mr. Palengke” ( Mr. Wet Market ) also struck positively with the viewers. In the current crop of infomercials, the message of NOYNOY’s “Hindi Ka Nag-iisa” ( You are not alone) is in a few words about HOPE and the imperative to continue the struggle as a community or nation. But, others are asking, “ where is the platform?” Which is why, there is a newer version of this television infomercial with a voice over that purports to impart the core message about what the issues are. The Villar infomercials have had plural messages since it started but the main message is : the poor boy who hails from the slums of Tondo, Manila made it but still has empathy with the poor. Critics’ monicker for the old infomercial “SIPAG at TIYAGA” ( industriousness and steadfastness) of Senator Villar is “C-5 at Taga”.
( in reference to the issue of whether there was a double entry in the General Appropriations budget pertaining to the project for the circumferential road called C-5) The Gibo Teodoro infomercial is basically saying to the viewers : I am here and offering to be of service and I have “ talino.” ( intelligence) One big billboard in Davao City says GMA Cares and a vandal wrote “ Pag sure Oy.” ( Hey, please be sure) A friend of mine who does not like to hear the popular expression “ Pag Sure Oy” is suddenly in love with these words in reference to PGMA.


Our change politics movement (CPM) has compiled a list of activities that candidates and supporters can do at anytime and before the campaign period. The CPM list of activities that can be done at any time based on our election law include "publishing results of surveys if favorable, asking media to write columns on favorable results of surveys, using campaign gadgets, gear and apparel on one’s own personal property, expressing supporters’/volunteers’ own belief/opinion on issues, qualifications, programs of government, using supporters’/volunteers’ own alternative media (e.g. Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, SMS) to express support/belief/ opinion, using home-made or personally created campaign paraphernalia without words vote for.”

In turn, the CPM list of activities, after filing of candidacy and before the campaign period include "distributing campaign literature or materials but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” distributing campaign paraphernalia, gear and/or apparel for use by supporters like shirts, caps, calendars, umbrellas, pins, lanyards, baller IDs, jackets/vests, but avoiding keywords that may be construed as expressly soliciting votes such as the word “VOTE,” putting up and maintaining accounts in Facebook, Multiply, Friendster, Twitter, etc. through supporters, but not the candidate, and adding and/or accepting invitations from as many friends or contacts as possible and regularly update posts and status messages expressing opinions or commentaries on the qualifications, programs of government, etc. "

Project Citizenship : Mar Roxas

Senator Mar Roxas was the only guest that showed up in the July 30, 2009 forum on Mindanao Peace, Economy, Environment & Youth Development. It was a forum under the auspices of the Project Citizenship of the Ateneo de Davao University ( particularly the Political Science & History program of the Social Science & Education Division and SAMAPULA, the organization of Political Science students ) and the Change Politics Movement. Other politicians such as Jejomar Binay, Grace Padaca, Francis Pangilinan, etc, who have individually expressed a desire to run for national posts were invited, too, but did not make it.

Mar Roxas said there is something to be said about those who show up and so I am giving space to him and hopefully, the rest who did not show up will have their space here another time. Senator Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II was born May 13, 1957. He is the grandson of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas. Mar, an economist, is a product of the Ateneo de Manila for his basic education and studied Economics all the way at the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Mar is very eloquent and spoke a handful without notes. He would pepper his speech with Binisaya Ilonggo as he served as a congressman from Capiz from 1993 to 2000 until former President Joseph Estrada appointed him as a cabinet member for the Department of Trade & Industry. Asked what the best thing Gloria Arroyo did, he said that it was re-appointing him as head of the Department of Trade & Industry.

Then, he was asked about what is great about the Liberal Party. He said that among the current crop of Liberal Party stalwarts, no one has been tainted with wrongdoing or corruption. I wish to share to the younger generation that perhaps, the reason why Mar says current Liberal party members is because the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1965 was once a prominent member of the Liberal Party founded by former Philippine President Manuel Roxas, and then Marcos became a turncoat after failing to get the Liberal Party's nomination for president. Marcos ran as the Nationalist Party candidate for president against the Liberal president, Diosdado Macapagal. Marcos won and was forced to step down twenty years after ( in 1986) when Cory took over as President after the EDSA people power revolution. Anyway, I felt even as a child back in 1965, that there were only two political parties : Liberal and Nacionalista. In local politics, though, delineation between what parties stood for was blurred as voters elected personalities or local kingpins and overlooked political parties. My sense is that it is still the same up to now which is really an indication for party building and for us citizens to invest ourselves in the discussion of political party platforms and national and local election issues.

Mar who is not topping but rising, though, in current presidential surveys was elected as Senator in the 2004 elections by 19, 372,888 votes and is still the highest ever garnered by a national candidate in Philippine election history.

The following are his answers to the rest of the issues :
a) On his expensive television commercials, i.e. the tricycle driver spiel, Mar says that the funds are his inheritance. While others would spend on expensive cars, he is choosing to spend his money communicating to the Filipino people.
b) On Mindanao peace : He is for peace but not carving another juridical entity out of the Philippines and that consultation on these issues are very crucial.
c) On reproductive health : he was asked how he would implement the Magna Carta of Women particularly reproductive rights: he said that definitely he is against abortion and to the students in the audience he said that providing information on reproductive health is important and that government should not impose or interfere on the couple’s decision on what is good for them in the area of reproductive health.

Many of my friends in Mindanao really took issue with the Mar Roxas stand on the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancentral Domain ( MOA-AD) particularly on the Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity (BJE). Perhaps, Mar as a politician, is also sensing the pulse of the larger majority and which is why communication and public awareness and consultations in planning alternative futures are crucial.