Money makes the world go round.
Undeniably, money has been constant in our lives and still plays a big role in this society. Even during campaign period, which is actually happening right now, money never loses its luster; it is still a big factor in gaining votes from the public. Without money, campaign is impossible to happen. Thus, money makes the campaign go round.
From the past few months, TV ads flooded different networks and almost filled the whole commercial break when we’re watching our favorite shows. Even if we try to surf various channels, we always end up to a campaign ad that promotes a certain candidate. These ads are all paid and their costs involve a lot of money.
From the data presented by AGB Nielsen Media Research, they stated that from February 9, which is apparently the start of the official campaign period, until March 2, Villar was considered as the biggest spender among the top five candidates in the presidential race, using up P120, 411,093 for 195 minutes of airtime.
With P88 million for 128.50 minutes, former President Joseph Estrada landed the second spot which was followed by Senator Benigno Aquino III with P87 million for 180 minutes. Senator Richard Gordon grabs the fourth place with P67.3 million for 144 minutes, while administration standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro was nailed at the fifth spot with P60,480 for 1.5 minutes of airtime.
These figures only shows how big they have spent for all their campaign advertisements for the last few weeks not mentioning the print ad and other ways of promoting their candidacy.
As stated in the Republic Act 9006 or the Fair Election Practices Act, each candidate is allowed a maximum airtime of only 120 minutes for TV ads, computed per station, during the campaign period. On the other hand, in terms of expenditures, the Commission on Election allows a presidential candidate to spend only a maximum of P10 for every registered voter for the election campaign, or a total of P500 million based on the poll body’s estimate of 50 million registered voters.
Media has a massive impact in promoting the candidacy of these aspirants. But using media as a means also involves a lot of money. If that’s the case, then how can other small time presidential candidates take the lead in promoting their selves if they don’t have enough budgets to showcase their image on TV and other forms of media? How can they surpass other big contenders if these well-off candidates are already spending a huge amount of money in plugging their selves to the public?
Campaigning is one big competition. Some contenders have everything while others do not. Maximizing their available resources can be the best way in winning the election without exceeding the limit of expenditure for their campaign.
Campaign period is a long, winding road that consumes effort, time and money of all the presidential candidates. They are obliged to put off other unnecessary tasks just to focus on their race. With what is happening right now, they are willing to lose what they have to get the most prestigious rank in the Philippines.
And it is quite irrefutable that everything revolves around money and that money is equated to power.
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