Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago demanded Friday the pullout of the infomercials of Cabinet and other government officials or she would be compelled to recommend the filing of corruption charges against them. During a hearing of the Senate economic affairs committee, which she chairs, Santiago told concerned Cabinet executives: “You should pull out all those infomercials by the end of the month." “If not, when I submit my committee report, I shall ask the Senate to make a recommendation to the Ombudsman to prosecute every Cabinet member who appears in an infomercial after the deadline," she added. The committee invited 12 Cabinet and local officials who are running the infomercials, but only Vice-President Noli de Castro, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz, Philippine Amusement and Gaming corporation (Pagcor) Chair Efraim Genuino, and Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Bayani Fernando attended the hearing. Santiago said the officials could continue with the infomercials of their respective departments minus their faces in the ads. She said she would also recommend the cancellation of department ad items in the national budget, which according to the Department of Budget and Management, is included in the maintenance and other operating expenses. “We should eliminate this item because it is a standing invitation for an ambitious Cabinet member to project himself instead of his office," Santiago said.
No government fund used? Of the Cabinet officials present, only Teves said that no government funds were used for his infomercials. Secretary Duque said the P32.4-million the DOH spent for infomercials in 2009 was provided by the National Center for Health Promotion, which was approved by both houses of Congress. Vice president De Castro said the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG corporate fund financed the P172-million ads of the agency for radio and television since 2007, adding that the amount is only 1 percent of the income of his agency when his staff started airing infomercials. He said Pag-IBIG earned P16 billion in 2006, P34 billion in 2007 and P45 billion in 2008. For his part, Secretary Lapus said the Department of Education spent P5.7 million from its budget for the ads while “a bigger amount of P20.4 million is donated by the networks under Republic Act 8525, or the Adopt a School program." Pagcor’s Genuino said his agency spent P82 million for its advertisements and MMDA’s Bayani Fernando used the agency's P5.8-million public information funds for the advertisements. De Castro said his department will study Santiago’s demand while Duque argued it has been the practice of the Health department to include their secretaries in their infomercials. Fernando and Geniuno promised to heed Santiago’s demand.
Nothing wrong In a separate interview, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said there is nothing wrong with advertisements, as it allows people to know the projects of the government. He said pulling out all the infomercials would be problematic as there are people in other places who rely on ads for information.
“Maging totally blank
sila kung ano ang ginagawa ng gobyerno (We would be denying people of information if we would pullout all infomercials. Maybe only those infomercials with the Cabinet members should be pulled out)," Andaya said. During the hearing, the auditors of Pag-IBIG and Pagcor said they have already called the attention of their respective agencies on the use of fund for infomercials. The Pag-IBIG auditor sent an observation letter asking for an explanation for the increase in the expenditure while the Pagcor auditor asked the agency executives why they need to advertise when they have the “monopoly" of games and amusements in the country. Santiago also said that she will also recommend the revision of the Amended Election Code to prevent possible candidates from premature campaigning. She wanted to abolish the conflict between the section 79 (a) of the election code, which states that “the term candidate refers to any person who has filed a certificate of candidacy" and Section 80, which states that “it shall be unlawful for any person, whether or not a voter or candidate, to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity, except during campaign period." Aside from Santiago, only Senator Loren Legarda attended the hearing. Santiago said this is because the issue is considered as a hot potato. “Hot potato
kaya ayaw nila pumunta kasi mamaya baka sila rin ay pagbintangan din ng mismong krimen. He who comes to court must come to court with clean hands," she said. The senator also threatened to order the arrest of other Cabinet members who failed to attend the hearing. However, she is not sure if she would call for another hearing because she said, “I’m tired of my own company."
Face-off During the hearing, Legarda asked De Castro why he has to appear in Pag-IBIG’s infomercial. The Vice President then read a letter from the Pag-IBIG management stating why they chose him to appear in the infomercial. He said he was chosen because he is the chairman of the Pag-IBIG fund and therefore can speak for the institution and its commercials and is duty bound to advance the housing project. De Castro further reads: “It is also consistent with the order given to him by President Arroyo, when he assumed the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) chairmanship, to make the housing loan program more accessible and affordable to its members. He is an ideal endorsers being one of the most recognizable personalities in the Philippines, a respected broadcast journalist and a trusted public figure as such he lends his credibility to what he is endorsing in this case the housing loan program. And being the chairman of Pag-IBIG, he is an in-house talent for our commercials who did not receive a single centavo for his service." He insisted that he is promoting “not myself but the program of Pag-IBIG." “Nobody has a monopoly of talent and voice in the Philippines…
Mapababayad din ang mga nakahiram without the face and voice of any Cabinet member," Legarda said. The exchange of arguments only stopped when Santiago butted in and said “the chair now rules that the point has been sufficiently explicated upon." Legarda and De Castro, both former broadcast journalists, have been at odds since 2004 when both run for the vice presidential post. De Castro won the elections but Legarda contested the result and accused the former of cheating. Recently, the two claimed that they had “kissed and made up" when they attended a wedding in Cebu.
- GMANews.TV 
GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
