Manila (UCAN): “While Filipinos still suffer from the adverse effects of the [Covid-19] pandemic, some politicians are already mounting their election campaigns. Their advertisements [paid for by friends] clutter the airwaves, television, and social media …,” Dominican Father Rolando de la Rosa wrote in an Op-Ed for the Manila Bulletin on September 5.
Father de la Rosa, president of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, said politicians were taking advantage of their wealth to secure votes through paid advertisements that had helped sell their image like commodities for public consumption.
“They [politicians] know that many of our countrymen vote by name recall, so they want to assure their victory by etching their names in our mind[s] through continuous exposure on various media platforms,” he said.
The Dominican priest also urged Filipinos not to believe in surveys that tried to shape public opinion ahead of elections.
“The trouble with surveys is that they present one generalised view of reality and subtly ‘absolutise’ this as the legitimate view, or worse, the only view we must accept,” Father de la Rosa said, explaining that surveys condition the electorate to vote for candidates who are predicted as winnable regardless of their qualifications or moral qualities.
“This is why even crooks, thieves and suspected criminals run for public office. They no longer worry about their misdeeds being exposed by their opponents. Their advertisers will dismiss those crimes as fake news perpetrated by their enemies, who are in turn labelled as mudslingers,” he said.
John Apil, a professor of politics, echoed Father de la Rosa’s view on the upcoming Philippine elections, saying, “I totally agree with him, particularly the way he depicted the reality in Philippine politics. Those who have the money have more advertisements that result in name recall, while those who do not have the funds cannot win in the elections even if they have a good track record.”
Apil said a politician running for senate office is required to spend at least 300 million pesos [$46.67 million].
The filing of certificates of candidacy began on October 1 and the election process run from 9 January to 8 June 2022.
