Our worst, forlorn hope

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Our worst, forlorn hope
Sunday, 03 21, 2004

It is clear that with Arroyo’s spending of 189 minutes and television time to further her campaign 69 minutes in excess (and still mounting) of the limits allowed by the Omnibus Election Code, as amended by the Fair Elections Act, she has violated not only Section 86 of the latter law but the resolutions of the Comelec… as well. She is guilty of blatantly skewing the playing field for television and radio media in her favor, to the detriment of her fellow candidates who are unable to equal her humongous money war chest for campaign. She cannot be allowed to juggle with the clear wordings of the law. She must suffer the consequences of her outright and despicable violation thereof. Her mockery of the laws and their laudable purposes must be met with a stern hand.”

This is the concluding argument of a group that calls itself as pro-Con(stitution), in its petition for disqualification against presidential candidate Gloria Arroyo. One of its members, Jose Vicente Salazar, a younger lawyer from Bicol, says the petition should be seriously considered by the Comelec – or even as it is being deliberated, by the country’s electorate – because “we cannot afford another six years under a President who has been known to renege on her word, and is a scofflaw, to boot.”

We have seen how, with a numbing regularity that bordered on obscene impunity, the nation has been bombarded with the “last, best hop” political ads of Arroyo. A pundit not exactly enamored with another six years of a directionless administration refers to the ads as the last gasps of our “worst, forlorn hope – sic transit gloria arroyo.” Amen, Salvador Abordo.

So, my dear Salvador, you can credit the pro-Con lawyers for their initiative in undertaking a painstaking inventory and monitoring of all television stations until they got their figures on March 11: 242 spots totaling 189 minutes. And the count is mounting, with Arroyo unperturbed.

The law says 120 minutes only per candidate, not a second longer. But here comes the Comelec, which now says it is 120 minutes per television station. I am not crying foul here - not just yet – but I am aghast at how the Comelec can possibly rewrite the law without any qualms, in complete disregard of the impartiality of a so-called independent commission, to hold itself above suspicion of collusion with the subject of the political ads.

Indeed, the claim that there is a Comelec resolution that practically absolves the accused candidate or offers her a convenient defense to avoid disqualification, is highly suspect.

The 120-minutes limit has its own reason for being. It is a cap to avoid political ads running riot in the campaign frenzy; its salutary objective being to level the playing field for the poor running against the moneyed candidate. But, to accommodate Arroyo, the Comelec sees otherwise. I say the timing is suspect, coming as it does at the heels of the violation by Arroyo of Resolution 6520, which spells out very clearly the intent to limit the broadcast time of political ads to 120 minutes per candidate for the entire duration of the campaign.

For all that it purports to revise, the amendatory resolution should not even be effective as yet. It has not been published, and there lies the intriguing question: Why does the Comelec ignore the advice of its own head of Information and Education department, that the relaxation of the limit must not be allowed because the Senate deliberations during the crafting of the Fair Elections Act show exactly and very clearly how much broadcast time a candidate is entitled to?

The Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino – or for that matter any other political party or individual who cringes at the thought of having Arroyo stay a minute longer at Malacañang – should intervene in the petition of pro-Con. Pro-Con has lined up a sizeable pile of incriminating evidence: From the report of long time, to tapes on air, to contracts, to monitoring reports of independent outfits, to vouchers…

Anak ng pating! The list is a long as my arm. The way I see it, the case is airtight for the outright disqualification of Arroyo.

For all it is worth, I have a question which pro-Con might have asked at the time the group presented the figures to the Comelec: Is there not a direct correlation between the breach of the time limit and the violation of the election spending limits? A 60 seconder in ABS-CBN already costs P354,000. Now, you do the math: If Arroyo had exceeded her time limit by, say, 69 minutes as of March 11, isn’t the total cost of those excess 69 minutes a clear case of overspending? Did I hear myself say “overspending” Anak ng Pating! That’s another ground for disqualification! Now, if you ask me, that’s an interesting ramification and another very inviting issue for another round against Arroyo. She should brace herself then for the next petition to be filed, not necessarily by pro-Con but by anyone who will pick it up from here.

It is my unsolicited advice that the pro-Con should set its sights on the buyer of the ads, put her under tight surveillance, so to speak. She could be up for another round of special operations designed to render moot any petition for disqualification. Personally, however, I don’t think she could still put up smokescreens and mirror to distract the attention of what she previously thought as a gullible and disinterested audience. Everyone is now wiser against any fabrication operations. And with the pro-Con lawyers having surveyed the gullies, ravines and quicksands of the political landscape so well, there can never be a repeat of the “manapatized” operations of recent memory if the Comelec commissioners make themselves aware of it all.

Let us see how the Comelec evaluates the evidence.



For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph

The Daily Tribune © 2004