THE Palace denied Friday accusations that it was behind a black propaganda campaign against Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and other presidential candidates running against the ruling Liberal Party’s standard bearer Manuel Roxas II.
“The government has no project to discredit Mayor Duterte or the other candidates,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., even as President Benigno Aquino III’’s allies were preparing to file charges against the mayor for his alleged role in extrajudicial killings.
“The charges reportedly stemmed from affidavits executed by a ranking police officer and supposed self-confessed gunmen,” Duterte spokesperson Peter Laviña said in a statement.
“We view this development with serious cause for concern,” he added.
Laviña said the suit was a desperate move by the administration to derail the aspirations of Duterte to become the next president, especially now that momentum is on their side.
“This ploy to resurrect the wornout allegations against the mayor is a vain and desperate attempt to stop that momentum,” Laviña said.
Laviña questioned the timing of the charges that will be filed and pointed out that the case could have been filed earlier, when Duterte was not yet running in the May elections.
“We deplore these dirty tricks. We abhor these underhanded tactics. We will resist this vain plot to pin him down because of his strong stand against crime and corruption. We warn them of the repercussions of such diabolical plan. The people will not be swayed by these black propaganda and amateurish schemes,” he said.
Duterte previously denied leading and conducting extrajudicial killings as Davao City mayor, but emphasized his hard line against criminals, drug lords, and pushers. He also dispelled rumors linking him to the so-called Davao Death Squad.
A spokesman for the Liberal Party campaign on Friday defended their spending on pre-campaign political ads for Roxas and his running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, saying they needed to do that to remain competitive in a close race.
“In a way, you don’t have a choice because all of them are spending. The spending is almost the same and to remain competitive, you need to maintain your presence and visibility in media,” Rep. Barry Gutierrez, a spokesman for the administration ticket, told The Standard in an interview.
The latest report by the Philippine Center on Investigative Journalism on pre-campaign spending based from Nielsen Media’s monitoring reports revealed that Roxas and Robredo at the top of the number of political ads and the amount spent on them as of Jan. 31.
Roxas spent P969.17 million while Robredo spent about P273.86 million. Ads pitching them as a team cost P92.33 million, for a total ad buy of P1.33 billion as of Jan. 31.
Gutierrez said the high cost of TV spots was the reason behind the high spending.
“Right now, the networks are charging on average, P800,000 for 30 seconds. It’s a situation that we did not create, but it’s a situation we need to endure,” he said.
In the “2016 Elections Political Advertisement Rate Grid” of broadcast giant ABS-CBN that the PCIJ obtained from an ad agency puts the value of a 30-second TV ad spot for “Prime A Programs” and “Post-Prime A Programs” at P830,969, and for “Platinum Prime A Programs,” P997,163.
Roxas said that the money for his political campaign came from both his personal funds as well as the donations of friends and supporters.
He added that he is willing to subject himself to a “lifestyle check,” saying that his records are open and transparent.
“All of these support [funds], advertisements will be submitted after the elections so I am open, my records will be released. I don’t have anything to hide, my record is clean,” Roxas told reporters.
Robredo meanwhile, maintained that her ad spending among the vice presidential candidates isn’t the highest.
With less than two months before the elections, Gutierrez said Roxas still has a better chance because of his extensive ground machinery.
“Whether [the campaign] will be won in an air war, we don’t know. But we think that it will be won on the ground,” he said.