Category: Civil Society

Kamag-anak, Inc.: Power is family to 5 wannabe president

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By the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

VOTERS KEEN in assessing the fitness for office of the five candidates for President in the upcoming elections may want to look at the presidentiables’ political pedigree and blood relations.

The five, after all, have occupied elective and appointive posts from a minimum of five to a maximum of 24 years. They spring, too, from political families with short to long histories, or slight to strong pedigree.

In many parts of the country, elective power and position typically beget appointive power and positions. In the case of the current crop of presidential candidates, are we electing only the persons whose names are on the ballot or members of their family as well?

By their own admission in their respective Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) across the years, in small and large measure, power is family to the top candidates in next month’s balloting.

The picture varies, though. Some have as few as two while others have as many as eight relatives in the government service.

Here’s a rundown of the political history and family ties in the government of the five presidentiables:


VICE PRESIDENT JEJOMAR ‘JOJO’ CABAUATAN BINAY had served as mayor of Makati City for nearly 20 years — from 1986 to 1996, and again, from 2001-2010.
JEJOMAR BINAY

During this period and in the intervening years, he had also worked as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority; and director of the Light Railway Transit Authority (1987, 1996-1998); director of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (1987), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (1987, 1990, 1991).

In his younger years as a lawyer, Binay had been a law professor and lecturer at the Philippine College of Commerce; St. Catherine’s School of Nursing and Midwifery; Philippine Women’s University; and St. Scholastica’s College.

He was a senior partner of the Binay, Cueva and Associates Law Office and had earlier worked as assistant attorney at the Deogracias T. Reyes Law Office; legal counsel of Manila Councilor Carlos Loyzaga; and claims examiner, Insular Life Assurance Company.

He is married to Dr. Elenita Sombillo Binay, who was elected Mayor of Makati City from 1998 to 2001, or during the three years that Binay could not run for the post.

The Binays have five children:

* Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, who is married to Jose Benjamin Raymundo Angeles;
* Makati City 2nd District Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, who is married to Luis Jose Angel Nakpil Campos;
* Suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin ‘Junjun’ Binay Jr., who was married to the late Kennedy Ann L. Binay;
* Marita Angeline Binay, and
* Joanna Marie Bianca Binay.

In his latest SALN, for 2014, Jejomar Binay declared having four children in the government service, including three holding elective posts: son Junjun and daughters Abigail and Nancy. Marita Angeline, meanwhile, holds the appointive post of head executive assistant, with rank of Director IV, in the Office of the Vice President.

SENATOR MIRIAM DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO has served as a trial court presiding judge, then Immigration commissioner, and Agrarian Reform secretary. She has been senator since 1997. Her third term in the Upper House will end this June.
MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO

In December 2011, she was the first Filipina and Asian to be elected to a nine-year tenure as judge of the International Criminal Court. But she later declined the post, citing as reason chronic fatigue, which eventually led to a diagnosis of lung cancer.

Santiago’s relatives provide her access to a network of politicians and bureaucrats. Her cousins, nephews, and a niece have served alternately as representatives of the third district of both Quezon City and Iloilo from the 12th to the 15th Congress (2001-2013). Her husband, lawyer Narciso Yap Santiago Jr., has also been appointed to various government offices.

Two of Santiago’s cousins and a sister have held key positions in the Bureau of Customs, the Commission on Audit, and the Commission on Higher Education.

In her SALN for 2014, Santiago said she has eight relatives in the government service.

The senator’s sister Nanalyn Defensor serves as her chief of staff, cousin Mary Grace Katigbak is Political Affairs Officer, and sister-in-law Chona Defensor is Director 1, at the Senate.

Her paternal first cousin Arthur Defensor Sr. is incumbent governor, and his son Arthur Jr. is the congressman of the third district of her home province of Iloilo.

Maternal cousin-in-law Estrellita Bito-onon Suansing is the congressman of the 1st District of Nueva Ecija.

Cousin-in-law Vivian Suansing is assistant director at the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

During the Arroyo administration, Santiago’s brother Benjamin P. Defensor Jr. was Air Force chief. Santiago’s husband Narciso Jr., meanwhile, was an undersecretary of the Interior and Local Government under both Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Santiagos had two sons Narciso III or “Archie” and Alexander Robert or “AR,” who died in a reported suicide in 2003.

On July 18, 2007, Senator Santiago herself swore into office son Archie as representative of the Alliance of Rural Concerns (ARC) party-list group, which won a seat in that year’s elections. This was even after ARC had withdrawn Archie’s nomination as its top nominee, for supposed “loss of confidence, dishonesty, unauthorized exercise of authority and gross violations of the group’s Constitution and by-laws.” ARC has focused its advocacy on the extension of the comprehensive agrarian reform program.

The Santiagos have adopted daughters, twins Megan and Molly.

RODRIGO “DIGONG’ ROA DUTERTE has dominated Davao City politics for nearly three decades now. He has served as its as mayor for two three-term cycles (1988-1998 and 2001-2010). He was its vice mayor from 2010—2013 and then mayor again from 2013 to the present.
RODRIGO DUTERTE

In 1998-2001, Duterte sat in Congress as representative of Davao City’s first district.

Duterte is separated from first wife Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, with whom he has three children: Paolo, Sebastian, and Sara Duterte-Carpio, who was Davao City mayor from 2010 to 2013. A fourth child, Veronica, was born to second wife, Honeylet Avancena, a nurse by profession.

Duterte has two siblings: brother Benjamin and sister Jocelyn.

In his SALN for 2014, Duterte listed six relatives in the government service. They include son Paolo who is Davao City vice mayor; brother Benjamin who is his “private secretary”; nephew Wilfrido Villarica, Administration Officer I of Davao City; daughter-in-law January Duterte, councilor/barangay captain of Catalunan Grande in Davao City; niece-in-law Jean Villarica, “auxiliary worker” of the CENRO (City Environment and Natural Resources Office); and co-parent-in-law Agnes Reyes-Carpio, a Court of Appeals Justice.

SENATOR MARY GRACE POE-LLAMANZARES has the shortest stint in public service among the presidentiables — as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from 2010 to 2012, and as senator since June 2013.

GRACE POE
Poe has spent longer years working in the private sector. In 1995, she worked as a preschool teacher at a Philippine “Montessori education-style school,” and in 1998, as procurement officer at the United States Geological Survey. In 2005, she was named vice president and treasurer of FPJ Productions, the company of her father, popular action movie star Fernando Poe Jr., who died in December 2004.

In her SALN for 2014, Poe declared having two relatives in the government: cousin Lawrence Cruz, a PAO (Public Affairs Officer) III at the Senate, and cousin-in-law Anna Camille Sevilla, a Director IV at the Senate.

MANUEL ‘MAR’ ARANETA ROXAS II has served three presidents — as Trade and Industry Secretary of Joseph Estrada (1998-2000) and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001-2003), and as Secretary of Transportation and Communication (2011-2012) and Interior and Local Government Secretary of Benigno S. Aquino III (2012-October 2015).

MAR ROXAS
In the 2004 elections, Mar Roxas emerged No. 1 among the senatorial candidates, garnering 19 million votes. He ran as Aquino’s running mate in 2010, but lost to Jejomar Binay.

The eldest son of the late Senate president Gerardo Manuel de Leon Roxas and Judith Araneta Roxas, Roxas entered politics only in 1993, after the death of his younger brother Gerardo Jr. or ‘Dinggoy,’ then Representative of the 1st District of Capiz. Roxas also has a sister, Maria Lourdes Roxas Ojeda.

He is now married to television anchor Korina Sanchez. He has a son, Paolo Gerardo Z. Roxas, by a former girlfriend, 1971 Miss Young International Philippines Maricar Zaldarriaga.

Mar Roxas is the grandson of Manuel Roxas, who had served as the third and last president of the Philippine Commonwealth Republic from May 28, 1946 to July 4, 1946 as a Nacionalista Party member, and as the first president of the Third Republic from July 4, 1946 to April 15, 1948 as a Liberal Party member.

On his mother’s side, Mar Roxas is the grandson of J. Amado Araneta and nephew of Jorge Araneta, and Maria Lourdes Araneta.

J. Amado Araneta and Jorge Araneta have donated significant sums to Mar Roxas’s campaigns in elections past and present.

In his SALN for 2014, Roxas declared having an uncle, a cousin, and a niece in the government service.

President Aquino appointed Roxas’s uncle Valentin Araneta as member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2014, a post that has a fixed six-year term. Earlier, Araneta had been president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation.

A first cousin of Mar Roxas, Maria Margarita Fores, meanwhile, was elected in January 2014 as one of the nine new Governors of the Philippine Red Cross, which receives some donations from the government but is not a state agency. Nevertheless, Roxas listed her among his relatives in the government service. Fores, who owns and runs the CIBO chain of restaurants and a culinary school, has become the caterer of choice of several Philippine presidents for big receptions at Malacanang Palace.

Roxas also has a niece, Pia Jane Trillanes, working as a Field Operator at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. DSWD is headed by Secretary Corazon ‘Dinky’ Soliman, a stalwart of the administration Liberal Party, which remains largely a veritable Roxas family heirloom. — PCIJ, April 2016
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For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Buckets of votes: 20 provinces on top list since 2004 elections

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By Vino Lucero

IN ORDER TO WIN ELECTIONS, national candidates need to court and earn votes in bulk.

A candidate can do so by asking for endorsement from formation leaders and sectoral representatives, and even from celebrities and matinee idols.

Or he or she can opt to do a more personal approach and hie off to vote-rich provinces, shake hands, talk to massive local audiences, and rally the voters to shade that oval before his or her name on the ballot.

PCIJ curated Commission on Elections voter statistics data from 2004 to 2016, and created a list of the top 20 provinces in terms of registered voters per election year during that period.

From 2004 to 2016, the same 18 have been consistently on the list: Cebu, Cavite, Negros Occidental, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Laguna, Davao del Sur, Iloilo, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Leyte, Zamboanga del Sur, Quezon, Camarines Sur, Isabela, and Misamis Oriental.

Cebu has also consistently held the top spot since 2004. Cavite, meanwhile, rose from fifth in 2004 to fourth in 2007, and then landed on the second rung in 2010. It has been there since. Leyte (13th), Isabela (17th), and Misamis Oriental (18th) also maintained their ranking from 2004 up to the present.

Cebu’s voter population increased by almost half a million in less than a decade – from 2,020,606 in 2004 to 2,508,189 in 2013 – ensuring its continuous reign in the vote-rich listing. Cavite voters also increased in huge margins, from 1,323,653 in 2004 to almost 1.8 million in 2013.

Interestingly, the same provinces have tightly contested the last two slots in the top 20 list through the years: South Cotabato (19th most vote-rich province in 2004, 20th in 2010); Bohol (20th in 2004 and 19th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); Negros Oriental (20th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); and Bukidnon (19th in 2010).

All the names ranked in the top 20 since 2004 have first-class income classification, according to the 2015 listing of the Bureau of Local Government Finance.

Provinces recorded with first-class income get an average annual income of P450 million or more from “own-sourced revenue efforts,” according to Department of Finance’s Order No. 23-08.

Yet while Cebu has been Number One on the list since 2004, more than half of the top 20 vote-rich provinces have been from Luzon in the past 12 years.

The 2016 vote-rich roster, for instance, has 11 provinces from Luzon (Cavite, Pangasinan, Laguna, Bulacan, Batangas, Rizal, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), six from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, Bohol, and Negros Oriental), and three from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, and Misamis Oriental).

In 2004, 11 of the top 20 vote-rich provinces were also from Luzon (Bulacan, Pangasinan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), while five were from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, and Bohol), and four from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis Oriental, and South Cotabato).

Indeed, while Cebu and Negros Occidental managed to keep the top two seats on the list in 2007, Luzon provinces still dominated the roster. The provinces included in the 2004 Top 20 vote-rich also made a reappearance in 2007, with the exception of South Cotabato. Negros Oriental snatched the vacated spot, which was the bottom of the list.

By 2010, Negros Occidental had slipped from second to fourth in the vote-rich provinces roster, and Cavite had emerged in second place. Bohol was dropped from the top 20, Bukidnon got the 19th spot, and South Cotabato re-entered to get the last seat on the list. – PCIJ, April 2016

2004 Top 20

2007 Top 20

2010 Top 20

2013 Top 20

2016 Top 20

Top bets for prez, VP, senator spend P54M daily on pol ads

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By Floreen Simon and Malou Mangahas

EVEN WITH just part of their campaign spending captured by Nielsen Media’s monitoring of their political ads from Feb. 9 to the end of March, at least two presidential and two senatorial candidates have already breached half of the cap set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Interestingly, too, many candidates for national posts apparently went on a campaign-spending frenzy immediately before the Comelec meter began ticking, resulting in nearly P800 million worth of ad placements within a mere eight days.

By all indications, the unbridled spending spree on political ads alone by the national candidates is turning the next fortnight’s balloting into the costliest yet in Philippine electoral history.

The official 90-day campaign period for national candidates began on Feb. 9. The campaign-spending limits set by Comelec — P10 per registered voter for presidential and vice presidential posts; P5 per registered voter for independent senatorial candidates, as well as for political parties and party-list organizations; and P3 per registered voter for Senate bets from political parties — are in effect only during this period.

Comelec records show that as of last Jan. 7, the country has a total of 54,363,844 registered voters. This means that for the May 9 polls, the campaign-spending limit for presidential and vice presidential aspirants is P543,638,440 per candidate; P271,819,220 for independent senatorial candidates, political parties, and party-list organizations; and P163,091,532 for senatorial candidates fielded by political parties.

PCIJ has subscribed to Nielsen Media’s monitoring reports on campaign spending. Nielsen’s latest report covered the first 50 days of the official campaign and is based on the published rate cards for TV, radio, print, and outdoor ad placements.

Daily average: P54M

The “air war” typically accounts for up to 80 percent of the bill that national candidates must cover. But campaign spending also includes multiple collaterals for the “ground war,” such as the production of the candidates’ ad materials; the conduct of public rallies; campaign t-shirts and giveaways; communication, transportation, and meals for sorties; rental and equipment for campaign headquarters; printing of sample ballots; and compensation for counsel, media agents, campaign staff, and poll watchers.

Yet even with just the ad placements monitored by Nielsen, the candidates running for president, vice president, and the Senate, along with their political parties, had already spent some P2.7 billion from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, 2016 alone.

That comes up to an average of P54 million in ad spend every day, or P2.25 million in ad spend every hour, by the candidates to national posts, in the first 50 days of the 90-day campaign period. The daily ad spend of these candidates could yield 52.94 centavos in daily cash bonanza for every Filipino, if distributed among the nation’s population of 102 million.

Yet that’s not the only ad spending that has been happening. Last month, PCIJ reported that according to Nielsen Media’s monitoring, most of the same candidates had spent about P6.7 billion in pre-campaign ads that featured them as “advertiser” or “product” in about 105,00 ad spots on TV, radio, and print media, from March 2015 to Jan. 31, 2016. Adding the P800 million in additional ad spend from last Feb. 1 to 8, the pre-campaign ad spend by these candidates amount to P7.5 billion in all.

Altogether, ad placements by national candidates in the upcoming elections, as captured by Nielsen, have now reached P10.2 billion in value.

Campaign finance laws allow the candidates to secure discounts on the published rate cards of media agencies according to this schedule: 30 percent for TV ads, 20 percent for radio ads, and 10 percent for print ads.

But the poor and slow submission to Comelec by most media agencies of their advertising contracts with the candidates prevent as yet any comparison of Nielsen’s rate card values with the net cost that the candidates had paid for their ads. The law requires media agencies to submit to the poll body advertising contracts, media purchase orders, booking orders, and receipts within five days after their signing.

In the May 2010 elections, the discounted ad spending of the top candidates for president, vice president, and party-list groups all together amounted to P4.3 billion, throughout the entire 90-day campaign period.

In the May 2013 midterm elections, the 33 candidates for senator as a group reported to the Comelec advertising expenses, by contract cost, of only P2.05 billion, throughout the entire 90-day campaign period.

More than half

This time around, the Nielsen report data reveal, among other things, Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as the current frontrunner among the presidentiables in terms of his campaign-ad placements beginning Feb. 9, the value of which had reached nearly P345 million by end-March.

Senator Grace Poe (Independent), who placed campaign ads worth a total of P331.4 million during the same period, came in second.

By the end of last month, thus, both Binay and Poe had managed to breach half the official spending limit for presidential bets based on Nielsen data alone, with Binay at 63.44 percent and Poe at 60.97 percent.

By comparison, the administration’s candidate, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II of the Liberal Party (LP), incurred P157.8 million on ad placements from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, apart from the P54.3 million in tandem ads for him and his running mate, Camarines Sur 3rd District Rep. Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo, paid for by the LP. Roxas’s personal ad spend is P200 million less than what Poe forked out. The amount made Roxas the third biggest spender on campaign-ad placements among the presidentiables, but had him spending only 36.81 percent of the allowed sum.

Robredo, though, is now first among the vice presidential candidates in terms of ad-placement expenditures. From Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, Robredo had a total ad-placement bill of P237.2 million, including tandem ads with Roxas that were paid for by LP. Robredo’s ad bill is equivalent to 43.63 percent of the allowed amount.

UNA did not spend a centavo on tandem ads for Binay and his running mate Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan II in the first 50 days of the campaign period. In contrast, Roxas and Robredo were boosted by the LP’s spending of P54.3 million more on ads that featured President Benigno S. Aquino III endorsing their tandem.

Poe’s political partner Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, meanwhile, spent about P1 million less than Robredo or P236.2 million. Escudero is the No. 2 highest spender among the vice presidentiables. Running a far third in terms of ad-placement spending is Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who nevertheless spent a substantial P172.4 million.

Cayetano’s presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of PDP-Laban, logged a total ad spend of P110.36 million during the period. The duo’s respective advertising bills include 50 percent of the cost of the ads that featured them in tandem, which Cayetano and an unidentified party paid for.

Then there are the ads featuring yet another candidate for president, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, which cost the People’s Reform Party P59.14 million. Recorded by Nielsen as having aired from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, the ads do not have Defensor’s name as payor.

Senate bets

Among the senatorial candidates, former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino is first place in terms of ad-placement spend from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31. But because he is running as an independent, his ad bill of P135 million is still under 50 percent of the allowed amount.

At least three other candidates for senator, however, have already breached the cap’s halfway point: Senator Franklin Drilon of the LP (almost P94 million, 57.01 percent) and Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin ‘Win’ Gatchalian of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (P84.4 million, 51.76 percent), and former Senator Richard Gordon (P83.4 million, 51.75 percent).

His ad placements were paid for by Bagumbayan Volunteers for a New Philippines. Gordon is also a guest candidate of the Poe-Escudero tandem.

Close to the halfway mark as well are Senator Ralph Recto and former Senator Francis Pangilinan, both from LP. Recto with P77.4 million in ad placements is now at 47.44 percent of the cap and Pangilinan with P75 million is at 45.98 percent. Catching up is Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez, whose ad placements of P72.4 million — including those paid by Lakas CMD party – have him at 44.39 percent of the limit.

Last big binge

Romualdez, however, seems to have indulged in a last-minute binge in the week immediately before the start of the official campaign spending period. For sure, he was not the only candidate to do so. But Romualdez seems to have outdone nearly everyone, including those running for the country’s top two posts.

From Feb. 1-8, Romualdez placed TV, radio, print, and outdoor ads to the tune of P120.7 million – even more than presidential candidate Binay, who wound up with an ad-placement bill of P115.7 million during the same period. Romualdez’s pre-campaign spree is also double that of Poe’s P58 million and nearly triple of Duterte’s P37.5 million. Indeed, Romualdez was bested only by another presidential contender, Roxas, who spent P136.3 million in those eight days in February.

Other senatoriables who spent considerable sums between Feb. 1 and 8 include Recto and former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief Joel Villanueva. Recto and Villanueva — who is also part of the administration’s senatorial lineup — each spent some P47 million to place ads during that period, or an average of close to P6 million per day.

There are also senatorial candidates like former Senator Panfilo Lacson and Gatchalian who right before the official campaign period began spent less than Recto and Villanueva, but more than all those vying for the vice-presidential seat.

Lacson, who is a guest on the LP senatorial slate, spent some P36 million and Gatchalian, P34.6 million. Contrast those against Robredo, the top spender among the vice-presidential candidates, who chalked up a total of P29.67 million in ad-placement buys during February’s first eight days, or against Cayetano, who ran up a total of P14 million.

The rest of the candidates for vice president also placed ads during the same period, but with more modest totals. Escudero’s ad placements from Feb. 1 to 8, for instance, had a sum of P2.65 million while those of Honasan (tandem ads with Binay) was at P2.37 million. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had P611,000 worth of ad placements and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, another independent candidate, had P400,000. (Marcos, like fellow vice presidential wannabe Cayetano, is a member of the Nacionalista Party.)

LP bets beat meter

At least seven senatorial candidates also beat Escudero, Honasan, Marcos, and Trillanes in ad-placement spending right before the limits on campaign spending came in effect. From Feb. 1 to 8, former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla placed ads that had him footing a bill of P15 million while former Pampanga Governor Mark Lapid had ad placements worth P14.13 million. Both Petilla and Lapid are part of the administration’s senatorial slate.

Gordon, for his part, had a total of P5.88 million and Manila Vice Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domogoso, P5.16 million. Former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had P4.35 million and former Senator Juan Miguel ‘Migz’ Zubiri, P3.3 million.

The lesser known LP candidates for senator — Cresente Paez, COOP NATCCO party-list representative, and Nariman Ambolodto, assistant secretary of Muslim affairs and special concerns of the Department of the Interior and Local Government — have not shown up at all in Nielsen’s ad-spending reports. Not a single centavo of ads paid by them or the LP appear in Nielsen’s reports for both the pre-campaign and the campaign periods.

The ad-placement spending of 18 senatorial candidates captured by Nielsen’s monitoring from Feb. 1 to 8 amounts to P339.4 million in all. This represents some 42 percent of the close to P800 million spent by national candidates and political parties to place ads immediately before Comelec began taking note of how much they were spending. It also reflects the fierce competition among the many senatorial candidates over the 12 slots available in the Upper House.

Paling in comparison is the total amount spent by the five aspirants to the vice presidency during the same period: P47.48 million, of which only a sliver came from Marcos, who has been the surprising perennial lead in surveys by different groups in the last few months. Defensor-Santiago’s running mate — the only son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos — would also spend much less than his rivals on ad placements from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31: P42.84 million or a mere six percent of the total ad spend of the five vice presidential candidates during that period.

Current presidential survey frontrunner Duterte has even less of a share in the total ad spend of the five contenders to the country’s highest post from Feb. 1 to 8: one percent. He would also remain fourth among the presidentiables (including one Apolonio Comia Soguilon, replacement candidate for the late Roy Seneres) in terms of ad spending from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31.

Including half of tandem ad placements with Cayetano, Duterte’s P110.36-million spend for that period comes to only 10.55 percent of the total P1.04 billion poured by the presidentiables into ads in a span of 7.5 weeks.

Upticks & negatives

Both Marcos and Duterte, however, made quantum leaps in their respective ad-placement spends from last February to March. Like most of the other candidates for president and vice president, both men acquired more ads in March. Unlike the others, however, Marcos and Duterte both spent relatively little in February.

Marcos spent P362,200 from Feb. 9 to 29; from Mar. 1 to 31, though, he accumulated an ad-placement spend of P42.48 million or a rise of 11,628 percent. Similarly, Duterte spent only P144,000 from Feb. 9 to 29. The following month, however, his ad-placement spend reached P110.22 million, or an increase of 76,416 percent.

Curiously, the Nielsen reports include negative ads run against two candidates in particular: Binay and Marcos.

According to Nielsen data, anti-Binay ads continued to run on TV in the week before the start of the official campaign period, with their placements in ABS-CBN and GMA-7 having a total value of P25 million. All were supposedly paid for by the Makati City-based A.B. Ison Pilot Construction and Trading Corp., which had also placed similar ads on TV in January that amounted to P8,835,162. This is despite a ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that bars private corporations from donating money to political candidates or to any partisan political activity. In all, A.B. Ison’s ad placements against Binay reached P33.83 million.

As for the anti-Marcos ads, the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang or CARMMA placed them between Feb. 9 and 29. Compared to the anti-Binay ads, however, their total value is rather measly: P334,278. — PCIJ, April 2016

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For more details, check out PCIJ and PCIJ’s Money Politics Online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gender mix: More women voters, still more men in power

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By Davinci Maru, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

IN TRADITIONAL SOCIETIES, the home remains the primary domain of women. They are often relegated to supposedly feminine roles as child-bearers and housekeepers, or as all-around nurturer of families.

Exactly 79 years ago, on April 30, 1937, Filipino women gained the right to vote and to run for public office. But it was 30 years earlier or in 1907 when Filipino men of some education and property claimed that right.

Starting 2004, a new trend has emerged — that of the number of women outpacing the men in the league of registered voters.

Total RV by sex

During the 2004 general elections, there were 17,014,643 registered female voters and only 16,495,449 male voters, for a gap of 3.1 percent.

In the 2007 legislative and local elections, the difference was slightly lower at 2.6 percent. There were 16,503,110 registered female voters compared to 16,084,962 registered male voters.

In the 2010 elections, however, the gender gap rose to five percent in favor of the women. There were 19,068,323 registered female voters and 18,155,722 registered male voters.

In the May 2013 elections, there were 27,406,600 registered female voters than men, 26,379,623 voters, for a variance of 3.9 percent.

For the May 2016 elections, there are 28,052,138 registered female voters and only 26,311,706 male voters, a sharp 6.6 percent difference.

In 2013, the top provinces with more registered female voters than male voters were the National Capital Region (NCR), Cavite, Cebu, Rizal, and Laguna.

Girl Power

In contrast though, some of the provinces beset with conflict, such as North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Maguindanao, registered bigger numbers of male voters.

Male Domination

For Filipino women. exercising their right of suffrage came much later. They were denied their right to vote and deemed not fit to join the affairs of the government, under the country’s first election law or Act 1582. They were allowed to cast their vote for the first time only in 1937.

Article V, Section 1 of the 1935 Constitution stated that “the National Assembly shall extend the right of suffrage to women, if in a plebiscite which shall be held for that purpose within two years after the adoption of this Constitution, not less than three hundred thousand women possessing the necessary qualifications shall vote affirmatively on the question.”

On April 30, 1937, the date set for the plebiscite, a total of 447,725 women cast their votes in favor of women’s suffrage.

In truth, however, politics, remains a man’s world in the Philippines. Still more men than women hold the reins of power, on all levels of officialdom.

In a statement dated April 30, 2015, the Philippine Commission on Women (PWC) notes that, “statistics show that women hold 25 percent of seats in the Senate and 27 percent in the House of Representatives.”

“At the local level,” it added, “women comprise 22.5 percent of gubernatorial posts, 18.5 percent of vice gubernatorial posts, and 20.86 percent of mayoralty posts.”

There has been some major improvement with respect to women’s rights in the political landscape, but many women in power still come from the ranks of traditional political families, serving as benchwarmers for the menfolk of their clans.

Of the 44,448 candidates in 2013, only 18 percent or 7.921 were women. Of the 33 candidates for senator, only eight were women. And of the 630 candidates who ran for district representatives, only one in six or 125 were women.

What’s evident in the May 2016 elections, though, is that women have become a significant, discerning community of voters.

Currently, only three women are seeking the highest offices of the land – Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-Santiago are two of five candidates contesting the presidency, and Leni Robredo, one of six candidates for vice-president. — PCIJ, March 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ‘vulnerable’ amongst us

mcmangahas

By Davinci Maru, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

THEY MAY be fewer and weaker but their right to vote is just as important as that all voters share.

Their sorry situation is a context for the May 2016 elections. In large measure, their being “vulnerable voters” derives from the internal conflict and the poverty that afflict us all in the nation.

As of the last elections in October 2013 we voted our barangay officials, records from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed a total of 626,236 registered voters with disability, and another 339,144 who are illiterate or with had little or no formal schooling and could not read or write.

And they come from areas that are also the most vulnerable if not to cheating and fraud, then to other irregularities that may visit the balloting this year.

The big numbers of persons with disability (PWDs) among registered voters are from the conflict-affected regions of Mindanao.

WITH DISABILITY

Interestingly, these provinces are also considered by then authorities as election watch-list areas (EWAs) in the May 2016 elections. They include the province of Maguindanao that has witnessed politically motivated incidents and threats from armed groups in recent elections.

Meanwhile, Comelec data also revealed that big numbers of illiterate registered voters, as of the October 2013 elections, are from provinces with the highest poverty incidence among families from 2006 to 2012.

ILLITERATE

These provinces, according to the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), include Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, Negros Oriental, Sultan Kudarat, and Saranggani.

Republic Act No. 10366 “An Act Authorizing the Commission on Elections to Establish Precincts Assigned to Accessible Polling Places Exclusively for Persons with Disabilities and Senior Citizens” was enacted on August 30,2013.

Section 2 of the law says that PWDs refer to “qualified voters who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in the electoral processes on an equal basis with others.”

“It may likewise refer to qualified voters whose physical inability to accomplish the ballot, on Election Day, is manifest, obvious, or visible,” it adds.

As of February 2011, the National Household Targeting System For Poverty Reduction of the Department of Social Welfare and Development said there were 4,466,649 households in the country with PWDs.

This number excludes as yet those form the Set 1 areas of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps or Conditional Cash Transfer Program), or 333,281 households from the same poorest provinces of the country who had been served from March to December 2008.

For its part, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said that as of 2010 Census of Population and Housing, of 71.5 million Filipinos aged 10 years old and above, 97.5 percent or 69.8 million were literate or could read and write. This was better than the literacy rate of 92.3 percent recorded in the 2000 census.

The flip-side though is that this number also means that across the nation.1.7 million or 2.5 percent of all Filipinos 10 years or older are unlettered or could not read or write.

The National Capital Region or Metro Manila leads with a 99.7 percent literacy rate.

Seven other regions also performed better than the national rate — CALABARZON or Region IV-A (99.3 percent), Central Luzon or region III (99.2 percent), Ilocos Region or Region I (99.1 percent), Bicol Region or Region V (98.5 percent), Western Visayas or Region VI (97.9 percent), Central Visayas or Region VII (97.7 percent), and Caraga (97.7 percent).

Yet still, ARMM scored the lowest literacy rate at 82.5 percent. Among the provinces, Sulu had the lowest literacy rate at 76.6 percent.

Among the regions, ARMM, too, had the lowest school attendance at 59.3 percent, and among the provinces, Basilan, at 52.8 percent, as of the 2010 census. — PCIJ, March 2016