MANILA -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said they will be strictly enforcing campaign guidelines for the May 2010 polls.
A recent report of Pera at Pulitika (Money and Politics), a group monitoring campaign spending of 2010 candidates, showed that presidential bets Manny Villar, Joseph "Erap" Estrada, and Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III are running out of allowable television airtime.
The group said that Nacionalista Party standard bearer Villar only has 40.5 minutes left of airtime in each of major television networks GMA7 and ABS-CBN.
Aquino has 44 minutes left for ABS-CBN and 54 minutes for GMA7. Erap has 42.5 for ABS-CBN and 55 for the Kapuso network.
Administration bet Gilbert Teodoro meanwhile has not consumed a single minute of his allowable airtime.
Campaign period started last February 9 and will run up to May 8.
The commission, according to the campaign guidelines they issued last February, has allowed candidates 120 minutes of television airtime per station.
As part of its monitoring duties, the Comelec has asked television networks to submit reports on the advertisements of 2010 candidates.
All broadcast media outfits must submit certified true copies of broadcast logs of political ads on March 9, April 9, May 8 and May 14.
“Reports would be submitted by the different networks to the Commission on Elections so there's a way to monitor their ads aired on TV. They should follow the resolution and the law. We already made it 120 minutes per station," noted Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)