News with Good Idea but Worst Implications this Week

This week, we take a look at three recent news that seemed good but has a bigger chance that it's just be another bust.

Bacolod asking for Exemption from Donation
News Link: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/247308/bacolod-seeks-exemption-elections-ban

The logic is simple: COMELEC has to exclude Bacolod City with the ruling of donations during election period because it could disrupt certain spending as they are regarded as donation. The recipients of the donation and assistance are the teachers, the police and the poor people who need help.

While the reason for exemption is noble, it is quite impossible that it'll never be part of politics. This is especially true in Bacolod City since politics is way muddier than an unkempt road in the sugarcane fields during the rainy season.

Gibo's Plan for Pork Barrel for Local Government Unit
Link: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/247186/gibo-push-pork-barrel-lgus

While reading the article, I was thinking: this is actually a great plan because it will cut down middle-men (AKA Congressmen) in distributing funds. But then I remembered the danger of money when given to politician located in a very far and unknown area. I mean, just look at the Ampatuans. I'm sure they have billions everywhere because of the power they wield. Since they are in Mindanao, no one can easily check what they do. This is also true in other towns in Visayas and Northern Luzon. No one is there to audit what they do with the money.

Speaking of Mindanao:

Mindanao Now in the State of Calamity
Link: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/247343/mindanao-under-state-calamity

If there's a specific part of the country that needs more help than anyone - it's the folks in Mindanao. Nature is under heat, literally, and its destroying crops. To deal with the problem, they declared a state of calamity.

Now, I fully support this decision because this will allow farmers or just about anyone in Mindanao access to the needed funds. But, how are they going to get these funds? Of course, they will have to approach a politician and these funds will be used to gain advantage in the election.

Any stories like these? Add the news in comments :)

(Image: trap door spider from Wikicommons)

Philippine Election 101 - Paid for by Friends of (Insert Name)

Election is coming and we see a lot of commercials in newspapers, television and radio that features one or two candidates. They don't tell what they run for but it's too obvious. Unless you've been living under the rock for the past two years, these candidates are aiming for the highest position in the land, vice-president, senator or any of the positions in your area.

In every advertisement about the candidate (printed or not) we always something that goes like this:

"Paid for by friends of"

This means someone paid for the commercial instead of the candidate. This also means the presidential candidates are the friendliest people in the land because they have so many friends willing to pay for these ads.

I was a bit curious and I researched why did this happen. While I did not get direct responses online, I found out that candidates are limited on their campaign funds. By law the presidential candidate is only allowed to spend PHP10 per registered voter. There are more than 40 million voters in the country which means each candidate should spend around 400 million.

400 million per candidate is a lot but think about it - ad spots in various media outlets costs a lot. It's even a conservative estimate that a candidate might spend half a million in television, radio and newspaper ads every day. They also have to spend on travel and pay a lot of people to work for them. 400 million is never enough.

One way they might skirt this limitation is to simply add the phrase "paid for by" if everything is paid for by their friends, it might look like they did not spend anything at all.

So what do you think? Are they really friendly enough or just trying to make things complicated?