Villar denies advertisements have exceeded airtime limits

Nacionalista Party (NP) standard bearer Senator Manuel Villar Jr. denies his advertisements have exceeded airtime limits. At a press conference in Mandaluyong City, Villar presented the letter of a certain Gia Apelo-Ramos of ABS-CBN’s Sales Department, which showed that he only logged 41.25 minutes of advertisements from February 9, the start of the campaign period, until March 28. During the same period, the Nacionalista Party posted 83.5 minutes in the same network. “Malayo pa ako sa paglagpas sa limitasyon. Isang kasinungalingan ito na kami ay lumampas. Dapat sabihin nila kung sino ba talaga ang lumampas. Gusto ko malaman kung sino ang nagpalabas na lumampas kami," Villar later told reporters. (I am still far from exceeding my airtime limit. It’s a lie to say that we already have gone beyond limitations. They should say who really exceeded his limit. I want to know who said we went past ours.) The NP also sent through email a certification from GMA7 that the party has consumed 76 minutes of its allowed time while Villar has consumed 36 minutes. A letter from TV5 showed that NP used 7.5 minutes of its time while the senator used 12.75 minutes. A certification from Solar Entertainment Corporation showed that Villar consumed a total of 7.5 minutes of commercial airtime within the GMA7 blocktime presentation of The Event: Pacquiao vs Clottey on March 14. Resolution 8758, which implements the Fair Election Practices Act (Republic Act 9006), restricts national candidates and parties to only 120 minutes of broadcast advertising on each local and cable television channel and 180 minutes on each radio station for the whole campaign period. Local candidates, on the other hand, will only be allowed 60 minutes of advertisements on television and 90 minutes on radio. Candidates who will violate the law will be punished by disqualification, disenfranchisement and one to six years imprisonment. If the violator is a political party, it may be fined not lower than P10,000. Last week, the Comelec said the Nacionalista Party and Sen. Benigno Aquino III have both used up their allotted minutes, with Aquino logging 291.5 minutes and the NP posting 256.5 minutes. But Aquino and Villar immediately said the Comelec may have erred in its computation. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV