Tuesday, April 03, 2007 Opposition to rely on TV ads to get maximum exposure
KNOWING they are up against “better known” incumbent Cebu City officials, the Genuine Opposition (GO) will rely on television commercials to reach the city’s voters.
GO candidates spent the fourth day of the campaign period shooting their 30-second commercial in Barangay Pasil yesterday, instead of campaigning in the barangays.
Administration candidates, on the other hand, continued with their early morning handshaking in Barangays Cogon Ramos, San Antonio, Sta. Cruz and at the City Hall executive department offices.
Congressional candidate for the south district and GO Cebu City head Jonathan Guardo said their commercial will feature the entire slate of the opposition, who will discuss their programs and advocacies.
The commercial will be aired starting next week.
Impossible
“There are 250,000 voters in the south district alone and to reach all of them, we have to shake hands with at least 5,000 individuals everyday and it’s very impossible to do so, that is why we decided to tap the media for a better and wider reach,” Guardo told Sun.Star Cebu.
He also believes they can relay their programs and advocacies to the voters better through a TV commercial, which will be paid for by their supporters.
The production cost and airtime for a 30-second TV commercial could easily reach P500,000, he said, but the director and production crew provided their services for free.
Go’s council bets discussed briefly their programs, such as health, sports, women’s rights advocacy and free legal assistance.
Sincere
“I want to promote our council slate because most of them are neophytes and we’re up against better known incumbent councilors,” Guardo said.
Although the ruling party Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) candidates already had their pictorial for campaign materials last week, no TV commercial has been made.
Reelectionist north district Councilor Edgardo Labella said handshaking in the morning and pulong-pulong at the sitios at night are still their main campaign activities, which he believes is a sincere way of reaching out to the constituents.
“We really need to touch base and have a face-to-face interaction with our constituency. Although campaigning through TV requires lesser time and the reach is encompassing, we also have to see the people,” he said. (LCR)
