Manny Villar Tops the Biggest Spender List in Philippines ‘most expensive election’
Sen. Manny Villar, Jr. the presidential candidate of Naciolista Party (NP) is still the biggest spender among the presidential aspirants. Villar, has spent over P120 million from February 9 to March 2 on TV advertisements alone, advocacy group Libertas said, citing figures on political advertisement spending from AGB Nielsen.
Manny Villar’s face is almost everywhere, from campaign posters on the streets to the Facebook. There is no wonder why he is on the top of the list in the biggest spender.
Second to Villar, is the deposed President Joseph Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino with declared expenditures of P88 million, followed by Sen. Benigno ‚ÄúNoynoy” Aquino III of Liberal Party with P87 million and Sen. Richard Gordon (Bagumbayan) with P67.3 million.
Administration party bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD) ranked fifth, spending only P 60, 480 million on TV commercials since the start of the campaign period.
Teodoro, however, will rank second to Villar if the amount of money spent on ads from November 1 last year would be taken into account. The former Defense secretary has spent almost half a billion pesos (P472,810,675 million) on TV ads from November 1 last year to March 2 this year, the AGB Nielsen showed.
According to Malou Mangahas, executive director of Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the 2010 Presidential election is the ‚Äúmost expensive election” in the history of the Philippines.
‚ÄúThis has been the most expensive elections ever in the Philippines. Everybody seems to be spending like crazy on advertisements,” Mangahas said at the Pera‚Äôt Pulitika forum on Thursday.
Candidates have been spending more than P2 billion on political advertisements even before the official campaign period.
The Republic Act 7166 or the Synchronized Elections Law mandates that candidates running for president and vice-president should spend only P10 for every registered voter within the official campaign period. With a projected total of 50 million voters in the upcoming polls, candidates are only authorized to spend around P500 million each for their respective campaigns.
