Political ads to increase this Christmas – Namfrel

The National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) expects the political advertisements of those running in the May 2016 polls to increase this Christmas season.

NAMFREL Secretary General Eric Alvia said as early as now, there is already a surge in the number of political ads.

"Definitely (we expect a surge) as Christmas draws nearer," he said in an interview.

And this subtle campaigning usually comes in the form of Christmas and New Year’s Day greetings.

"We should actually term it as unethical campaigning since there’s no such thing as premature campaigning,” said Alvia.

At present, the poll watchdog group has an ongoing social media “shame” campaign wherein they invite citizens to post pictures or videos of politicians engaged in unethical campaigning to the ‘Eleksyon 2016 Pampams’ Facebook page or at Twitter by using the hashtag ‘#pampam’.

Alvia said they consider their “shame campaign” a success in the sense that many became aware that many are against what some politicians are doing.

"Right now, it is a success...we brought awareness, but what are you going to do with it?" said Alvia.

"The best is to don’t vote for them. It would send the signal. That is enough consequence,” he added.

Based on Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law, “any person who files his certificate of candidacy (COC) shall only be considered as a candidate at the start of the campaign period” and that “unlawful acts applicable to a candidate shall be in effect only upon that start of the campaign period.”

The start of the campaign period is on February 9 for national candidates and March 26 for local bets.