KBP-Pangasinan rejoices over SC junking of political ads airtime limit

DAGUPAN CITY - The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas-Pangasinan Chapter rejoiced over the recent decision of the Supreme Court to junk the petition for limiting  airtime political advertisement during election period.

Jay Mendoza, president of the KBP- Pangasinan chapter said KBP is elated because the group’s hard work in lobbying for it paid off and the broadcast industry was given justice.

“KBP is very happy with the decision. Personally I am very happy too,” Mendoza told the Philippine Information Agency.

Airtime ads will give  chance for politicians to air their advocacies  and at the same time, the public will also have more time to study the platforms of the candidates for elections, he added.

It can be remembered that KBP filed a letter before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking a reconsideration of Resolution 9615 which regulates political campaigns and advertisement. The matter was elevated to the Supreme Court (SC).

In its recent decision,  SC  justices have permanently stopped the Comelec from imposing shorter airtime for political advertisements, The SC voted unanimously recently to strike down Section 9(a) of Comelec Resolution 9615 (as amended by Comelec Resolution 9631)  unconstitutional.

Both resolutions eye to level the playing field among political candidates by limiting the total airtime a national candidate may buy for campaign ads to 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio. Local candidates, on the other hand, should not exceed 90 minutes for television and 60 minutes for radio.

But with the SC decision, the restriction will stay at “per station” instead of the “aggregate total” per candidate.

Meanwhile, Provincial Election Supervisor Marino Salas said the Comelec respects the Supreme Court’s decision and will continue to do its mandate to monitor election-related issues.

“We will give attention however to cable TV stations,” he said during the KBP Forum held at the Philippine Information Agency.

He asked media people to continue helping them in prodding Pangasinenses to register with the new biometrics system to be able to vote  in the next elections.

Salas  said the latest moves to conduct off-site and mobile registration has decreased the number of unregistered voters from 321,000 to 146,000. (VHS/PIA-Pangasinan)