Aquino 'calling the shots' on Team PNoy campaign funds

MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III will be "calling the shots" in the Team PNoy campaign, including on offers of campaign contributions for the administration slate, spokespersons said Monday.

"This is the President's game. The President is calling the shots as far as this elections is concerned because he wants to ensure that what he has done over the years, he will be able to sustain and continue in whatever way, including receiving campaign contributions," campaign spokesperson and Marikina Representative Miro Quimbo said in a press conference.

Team PNoy is fielding nine candidates and three guest candidates for the senatorial polls in May. It is a coalition of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), Nacionalista Party (NP), the ruling Liberal Party (LP), Akbayan party, and the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, also a campaign spokesperson of Team PNoy, added that the administration slate will have the same discrimination on the source of campaign funds compared to that of the 2010 elections when Aquino ran and won as president.

When he ran as the standard bearer of the LP in the 2010 presidential elections, Aquino was cautious in receiving campaign contributions from donors.

Aquino was quoted in reports then that his campaign managers would reject donations if there were doubts about the source of the funds.

Quimbo and Tañada could not confirm reports that the LP has spent P50 million for its television and radio advertisements even before the official 90-day campaign period starts Tuesday, February 12.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño, who is running under the Makabayan Coalition, said that according to "reliable sources," the LP allotted P25 million for their advertisements from January 9 to 21, and another P25 million for the weeks before February 12.

Quimbo assured that government funds will not be used to campaign administration candidates. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)