LP: Elections will be a media campaign

MANILA -- Votes will be dependent on media exposure of 33 candidates wanting to get one of the 12 seats in the Senate this May midterm elections, an official of the ruling Liberal Party (LP) said.

Senator Franklin Drilon, campaign manager of administration-backed Team PNoy, disclosed this on Wednesday following a January survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showing the rival United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) taking a slim lead in terms of share in the so-called "Magic 12."

"Basically, media will play a critical role in this campaign," he said without elaborating.

Both camps and other candidates have already been placing advertisements in major television networks as Drilon even attributed the sudden entry of Grace Poe-Llamanzares in the winning circle to her recent ad.

"Maybe people already knew that she was running because she didn't state it before. But let me emphasize, this is just the start and a lot of things can happen," he said in a television interview.

Poe clinched the 10th to 11th place with 45 percent voter preference, a big leap from the 20th spot compared to the previous survey last December.

As former chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), Poe chose to run with Team PNoy although she is also an UNA guest candidate like Senators Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero.

Unlike Poe, administration candidates particularly LP members Jamby Madrigal, Bam Aquino and Ramon Magsaysay Jr. were not figuring well so far in the polls despite having a popular President Benigno Aquino III as main endorser.

But Drilon refused to be distracted by this, saying "they may not have the benefit yet of exposure that is needed."

"I am confident that we will recover. Jun Magsaysay was out of office for six years but we cannot discount his achievements when he was still in the Senate. Bam, the moment he is exposed to the public, you'll be surprised of the approval rating, conversion that he will get. It is just a question of exposure. I am not worried at this stage," he said.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier decided to have a 120-minute limit on all TV campaign ads and 180 minutes for radio. In the past, the said cap applied to each station only.

Asked about this development, Team PNoy said they have no choice but to respect it.

"That is the law. We just have to follow it. That puts us all in equal footing," he said, apparently seeing the regulation as fair to candidates who don’t have much money for a viable media campaign.

UNA officials were not immediately available for comment as of this posting Thursday. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)