Update on Philippine Elections

Senator Noynoy Aquino will meet former President Erap Estrada next week in an effort to unify the opposition. The talk will focus on the possibility of having one candidate for president.

Secretary Gilbert Teodoro wins the nomination of the Lakas Kampi CMD Coalition as the party standard bearer in the 2010 Presidential elections. MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando accepts the decision.

Former Speaker Jose de Venecia contest the merging of LAKAS CMD and KAMPI. He believes that the merging is void ab initio or illegal from the very beginning.

Eap files suit against Yunchengco for the alleged intimidation resulting to the Yuchengco's sale of stake to Pangilinan Group.

Advocacy Ads: Does It Help The Presidentiables?

Questions whether politicians who are having advocacy ads on television are violating election laws are still unanswered. Our election code permits appearances in mass media provided they are not directly campaigning for a particular position. They are after the words, vote for me, elect me, i campaign,,, and so on. Anyway, this is the Philippines, we have so many laws with so many loopholes.

In the recent survey, the presidentiables for the 2010 election seems to be well prepared to take all the strategies just to be noticed by the public regardless of the cost involved.



If you want to know how these presidentiables spend money for their advocacy ads (or campaign ads if we can say that). These are the numbers:

Mar Roxas - 140 million
Manny Villar - 90 million
Loren Legarda - 10 million

There are also some politicians who are spending a lot on tv ads like Mayor Jejomar Binay and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

The question is, if they are spending a lot of money in the coming election, do you think they will not get it back when elected? We know that these people are not philanthropists.

Problems with the New Coalition LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD

Few days ago, MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando commented on how the coalition handles its selection process for the presidency in 2010 elections. He asked why Vice President Noli de Castro and defense secretary Gibo Teodoro tops the lists of Presidentiables where in fact they are not yet members of the party. De Castro is an independent while Teodoro is still a member of Danding Cojuangco's political party.

Are we expecting more conflicts as the May 2010 election becomes nearer? In my point of view, it will definitely happen. Fighting for positions and endorsement will be a problem for these 3 big political parties.

So its not surprising that some opposition are going after some of its party members. It was reported that some members of LAKAS-CMD were being courted by the group of Manny Villar.

The political adviser of the president also commented on the standing of Sec. Teodoro in the surveys. If he wants to win, he should at least compete in the top list. With less than 5%, he is not the type of candidate that will win the race. However, if they use some illegal strategy, they could change the result of the election, as what the administration is doing for the past years.