No TRO yet on bets’ airtime cap

MEDIA outlets and a senatorial candidate have yet to convince the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) shortening the media mileage of politicians in the midterm polls.

Instead, the Court on Tuesday granted the petition-in-intervention filed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano last Friday as he joined broadcast stations GMA, TV5, and Bombo Radyo in assailing Comelec Resolution 9615 due to alleged violation of people’s right to information.

“I am confident that the SC will appreciate the merits of our case. I assure all the parties involved my full commitment in resolving this issue that infringes our constitutional rights to information and speech. This shall serve as the first step to leveling the playing field for the candidates and having a more mature election system,” he said.

Comelec was given five days to reply to Cayetano’s petition.

The poll body earlier said the resolution eyes 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 Cayetano said the Fair Elections Act intends for the restriction to be on a per station basis and not to limit airtime aggregately. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)