Category: Noynoy Watch

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

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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

A pandemic of TV ads: How, where, when 4 wannabe presidents did it

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ALMOST LIKE A PLAGUE, the political ads of four candidates for president, five for vice president, and two dozen other candidates for senator and local posts have started to assault our TV screens starting March 2015, or 14 months ahead of the May 9, 2016 elections.

All together worth P6.7 billion, by media’s published rate cards, these pre-campaign ads have turned this year’s balloting into the priciest ever in the country’s electoral history.

Who paid for the ads? The candidates have variably said that their unnamed donors, and/or portions of their own money, covered the expense.
But why ever must donors part with their millions when only the candidates stand to gain from political ads? And how, some citizens have asked, should the candidates pay back these donors who gave them not just money but also a quick ride to instant celebrity and fame on TV?

By Nielsen Media’s monitoring reports, overkill is an understatement. It does not suffice to describe the stupendously rich pre-campaign ad spend of four candidates for president — Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance; Rodrigo Duterte of PDP-Laban; Grace Poe of the Galing at Puso slate; and Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II of the Liberal Party.

Specific to the last detail, Nielsen Media’s reports enroll the day, date, and time, and in which TV programs the ads aired; their rate card cost at the time of broadcast; and which versions of the candidates’ ad materials ran.

So the people may know, PCIJ has decided to reveal the full details of Nielsen Media’s reports on the TV ads that featured four candidates for president as “advertiser” and “product” from March 2015 to January 2016.

2 firms paid pol ads, defy SEC ruling vs. partisanship

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By the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

TWO COMPANIES have done what they shouldn’t and couldn’t have.

First, they separately paid for political ads for and against two candidates in the May 2016 elections. They should not have done that. According to a ruling of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), no corporate entity, Filipino or foreign, should donate money to the candidates or to any partisan political activity.

But then both companies could not have done it. There is little to show in their latest financial statements that they could. Both companies, as of their 2014 filing with the SEC, appear to be in the red, with little or no operation at all.

The first firm, AB Ison Pilot Trading & Construction Corp., is listed in the Nielsen Media monitoring reports to be the “advertiser” of a total of P8,835,162 worth of pre-campaign political ads, by published media rate cards, that aired on national television in January 2016.

These 21 ad spots criticized Vice President Jejomar Binay, candidate for president of the United Nationalist Alliance or UNA, for his failure to explain his supposedly numerous bank accounts and the allegedly overpriced contracts that the City of Makati had awarded during his stint as mayor.

The second firm, Patriot Freedom Air, Inc., was listed as the “payor” in three advertising contracts signed with ABS-CBN network in February 2016 for the benefit of independent candidate for senator Francis Tolentino, former chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority or MMDA.

The three ad contracts that ABS-CBN submitted to the Commission on Elections listed Patriot Freedom Air as payor or “advertiser” of the ads worth a total of P12,567,772.

This amount consisted of:

  • P964,873, for twenty 30-second ad spots for Tolentino that aired from Feb. 9 to 29 on ABS-CBN’s regional TV stations in Baguio, Lipa in Batangas, Cebu, Davao, General Santos, Iloilo, and Naga City.
  • P9,971,628 for twelve 30-second ad spots for Tolentino that aired between Feb. 9 and 29 on “TV Patrol” and the prime-time teleserye “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” and “Dolce Amore”, and the variety show “Pilipinas Got Talent”; and
  • P1,631,271 for three 30-second ads for Tolentino that aired on ABS-CBN’s Sunday variety program “Showtime” last Feb. 13, 20, and 27, with each spot valued at P543,907,000.

Firms may not donate

SEC Opinion No. 15-08 issued on July 27, 2015, says that it is taboo for all companies to donate any amounts to candidates and political parties.

Signed by Camilo S. Correa, SEC general counsel, “by authority of the Commission En Banc,” the ruling states, “Section 36(9) of the Corporation Code imposes an absolute prohibition for corporations, both foreign and domestic, from giving any donations to any political party, candidate, or for the purpose of any partisan political activity.” (underscoring supplied in SEC Opinion No. 15-08)

In Section 144, the Corporation Code or Batas Pambansa Blg. 68 says that “violations of any of the provisions of this Code or its amendments not otherwise specifically penalized therein shall be punished by a fine of not less than one thousand pesos but not more than ten thousand pesos, or by imprisonment for not less than 30 days but nor more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court.”

The same section of the Code, however, says, “If the violation is committed by a corporation, the same may, after notice and hearing, be dissolved in appropriate proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Ex-Makati employee

AB Ison registered with the SEC on Sept. 27, 1977, and listed its office address at 7029 Wilson St. Pio Del Pilar, Makati City.

SEC records showed that as of Aug. 31, 1998, six names are listed as incorporators, with Pedro Ison serving as treasurer. According to SEC papers, Cynthia Ison holds the designation of corporate secretary, but is not among the incorporators who include, apart from Pedro Ison:

  • Luis R. Ignacio of Gapan, Nueva Ecija;
  • Jacinto S. Navarro of Guagua, Pampanga;
  • Lorenzo R. Rapanan of Villasis, Pangasinan;
  • Enrique C. Rivera of Cablao, Nueva Ecija; and
  • Arturo R. Rivada of 3776 Gen. Mascardo, Makati City

In addition, Arthur Ison, Michael Gonzales, Fernando Ablaza, and Amalia Gonzales, were listed as subscribers owning varying amount of company stocks.

In its 2013 Statement of Financial Position, AB Ison declared having a total of P11,112,485 worth of current assets, including P 2.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. It also reported non-current assets composed of property and equipment and reserves of P25,229,344, bringing the firm’s total assets to more than P36 million.

Still, AB Ison’s cash position is just a fourth of the P8.84-million value of the pre-campaign political ad spots against Binay that the company acquired in January 2016.

The amount it splurged on its political ads against Binay is twice to thrice more than its P3.466,800 net profit from operation in 2013, and P2,8982,319 in 2012, according to AB Ison’s records at the SEC.

MMDA contractor

For three weeks now, PCIJ has tried to reach AB Ison President Arthur Ison by phone and letter for comment, but he has yet to respond as of press time. His secretary said Ison’s “busy schedule” was the reason why he could not respond to PCIJ’s request.

PCIJ research meanwhile reveals that AB Ison, through Arthur Ison, has been engaged since 2012 in a private-public partnership project with the MMDA for the cleaning of esteros in Metro Manila. San Miguel Brewery Corp. and RM Gomez Construction were also involved in this project that was supposed to be a step toward making Metro Manila “climate-resilient.”

Photos of the Memorandum of Agreement signing between AB Ison President Arthur B. Ison and then MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino seemed to be unavailable from the MMDA website despite the presence of a webpage for the event, but PCIJ managed to get the photo below after scraping uploaded MMDA references.

The Department of Labor and Employment had also listed AB Ison in 2012 as one of its accredited contractors and subcontractors in the National Capital Region.

AB Ison may have also had other projects, based on the claims of a certain Marianne Joy Machitar in her LinkedIn account. According to Machitar’s LinkedIn profile, she worked for AB Ison from November 2009 to September 2011 as Project Engineer/Safety Officer, and that she “handled projects of well-known clients in the Philippines like Rockwell Land Corporation, Vista Land Corporation, Picar Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc.” during her stint in the firm.

Machitar worked for DPWH Surigao del Sur for two years and eight months after leaving AB Ison, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Worked under Binay

Interestingly, the archives of the Makati City government’s website show that Arthur Ison’s father and the firm’s founding president, Pedro Ison, had served as the municipal secretary of Makati for more than 26 years, even before Makati was declared separate from Rizal province.

A municipal resolution extended Ison’s term as municipal secretary despite reaching the forced retirement age of 65, supposedly because his service was still needed “especially during the period when the Local Government Code is to take effect on January 1992.”

Makati’s vice mayor at the time, Augusto V. Pangan served as temporary presiding officer, because Makati’s then mayor, Jejomar Binay, was not present at the gathering. The same resolution in favor of Pedro Ison also urged the city council to “make strong representations with the Civil Service Commission” so that Ison’s term would be extended for six more months.

The Makati City portal listed Pedro Ison as one of the “prominent residents” of Pio del Pilar, Makati City.

Zero revenue

As for Patriot Freedom Air, the receipts that ABS-CBN issued for the ad contracts worth nearly P12.6 million listed the company’s taxpayer identification number to be 008-850-909 and address at 502 Greenhills Mansion, Annapolis Street, San Juan City.

Tolentino; Rizalina Hombre, media director of his ad placement agency, AdmediaEdge; and Jaewoo Chung, president of Patriot Freedom Air, signed the documents covering the ad buys.

PCIJ checked out the firm’s records at the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC and found no evidence at all that it could afford to finance the former MMDA chief’s political ads.

Patriot Freedom is a stock corporation that registered with the SEC only on Sept. 1, 2014 and is said to be engaged in “tourist assistance activities.”

Jae Woo Chung is named as president in the company’s papers with the SEC, with his personal address shown to be 502 Greenhills Mansion. The other incorporators and officers of the firm are Angieneth Alma, Alex Ico, Twinkle Joy Sagun (treasurer), and Jean Ella P. Ico (corporate secretary). All five are listed to be Filipinos.

As of 2014, Patriot Freedom’s authorized capital was only P250,000, and its paid-up capital, only P62,500. As of Dec. 31, 2014, it reported to the SEC zero revenues, zero administrative expenses, and thus zero net income.

From its paid-up capital of P62,500, Patriot Freedom ended the year 2014 with only P57,250, on account of a decrease in current assets of P4,950. — With research and reporting by Vino Lucero and Malou Mangahas, PCIJ, March 2016