ABS-CBN and GMA 7 should stop accepting ad money from Presidentiables

If ABS-CBN and GMA7 really want to help the people make smart choices in the 2010 polls, they should do the following stop accepting TV and Radio ad placements from recognized or even rumored Presidential candidates. In fact, make it a policy not to accept money for airing TV and radio commercials that have political personalities in them.

This will really make their campaigns for Boto Mo, I-Patrol mo or whatever bullshit it is they are advertising REALLY mean

something more than a self-patronizing and self-aggrandizing play at showing everyone that they

"good" companies.

Huwag na tayong magbalat kayo at magkunwari na walang agenda ang mga news media. Halatang-halata naman eh.

Alien versus Predator: Jamby Madrigal versus Manny Villar

Monday, May 18, will be a very busy day for most Filipino reporters as the newest congressional sarsuela moro-moro makes its nth reiteration.

Perhaps millions of people will be watching the hearing on Senator Jamby Madrigal's ethics complaint against Senator Manny Villar in connection with the so-called C-5 double entry scam.

I am interested to find out if any of the evidence submitted by Jamby's lawyer last Thursday would hold up to scrutiny.

I sure hope it won't be like one of those hearings on the NBN ZTE deal where she made a big deal about a document which purportedly carried the initials of FG. She loudly asserted that the initials FG stood for First Gentleman and she seemed so convinced it was a real bomb.

Wow!

To refresh your memory, here's a snippet of a report I fished out from abs-cbnnews.com:

Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo made the appeal in reaction to Madrigal’s disclosure of an alleged National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) document on the NBN contract indicating that one copy went to the President’s husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.

He said the senator "maliciously" linked his brother to the contract on the basis of a "falsified document."

He said Madrigal should have first verified the authenticity of the document.

"Instead, Senator Madrigal threw caution to the wind and immediately put to question the innocence of my brother in the ZTE issue with the falsified NEDA document as basis. With the bias that Senator Madrigal has shown, there is no more reason to hope for fairness and impartiality in her participation in the probe," he said.

The document is a letter of former NEDA director general Romulo Neri to the Chinese ambassador in Manila. Madrigal’s copy shows a marginal note on the right-hand top portion stating "Copy for FG 1/F."

Madrigal said the Chinese embassy employee who received the letter, and whose name is also indicated, wrote the note on the top portion of her copy.

She asked: "Does FG mean First Goon, First Gangster or First Gentleman?"

NEDA later clarified that FG is actually FGI, the initials of its officer who was furnished a copy of Neri’s letter.

The Senate's entire reputation, it seems, is hanging on the balance here. If Jamby's accusations turn out to be true and her evidence holds up, then perhaps we will see a magnificent display of justice being done. Jamby would, perhaps, really be able to stake a claim of being a champion of truth and an enemy of corruption.

But, if the evidence fails to prove any of Jamby's charges, then perhaps this would prove to be a big embarrassment -- to say the least.

I am not certain if Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senator Jamby Madrigal are sharing the same pool of evidence. If they are, then, that would be an ominous sign for Jamby int he days ahead.

Lacson presented evidence against then Senate President Manny Villar at the Finance Committee then headed by Senator Juan Ponce Enrile last year. It was said that Lacson failed to prove his case against Villar.

So, if Jamby and Lacson are sharing the same pool of evidence, there is a chance that the charges against Villar might be dismissed a second time.

Then again, there may be people reading this blog who will say that evidence is irrelevant as the Senators participating in the committee of the whole will vote along partisan lines.

But in reality, there are not enough senators to vote for Villar's suspension or expulsion from the upper chamber. What is needed is a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Senate and that mean's sixteen senators have to agree to mete out punishment on Villar.

I did the math and came up with a possible 10 senators who will give Villar a thumbs down. The number is 10, after subtracting the members of the minority, senators who are not present in the chamber, swing voters, and senators who have inhibited themselves.

The best they'll manage, says a Senate insider who has seen so many similar hearings, is that the senate will issue a reprimand against Villar.

This may seem a cynical assertion to you, but I think all this fuss will end up like all the other hearings the Senate has had.

All fizz, no pop. All whiz, no bang.

In any case, as it is playing out right now, Villar is already being thoroughly humiliated by the allegations of corruption. And so, he is playing the pathetic underdog accused of a crime he swears he did not commit or the sorry female OFW he saved after she was made a slave in the Middle East.

And Jamby Madrigal is playing the fierce defender of the truth and fighter against corruption. Which reminds me of the time when she spoke so passionately about fighting for her inheritance, not for herself, but for the people who are depending on the continued operation of the foundation founded by her deceased aunt.

The only ones who will win in this fight are the two major TV networks who will be broadcasting the hearings live.

What got the most screams during the Pacquiao-Hatton fight?

The incessant government TV ads that appeared anywhere they could plug it, from start to finish. And I am given to wondering if the money spent for these TV ads were sourced from government funds and if so, could it be a case for the gross misuse of public funds.

Here in Manila, I started watching the run-up to the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton on Solar Sports (channel 35 on Destiny) and around 1:00 PM started watching it on GMA7 because my wife had been tipped off that it was at least 30 minutes ahead.

I caught Martin Nievera singing a pop rendition of the Philippine National Anthem, which I thought was actually pretty cool except for the fact that it looked like it was lip-synched. If it was indeed lip-synched, it was probably to avoid the boo-boos of two previous fights where the singer's voice cracked on the final line of the song.

Facebook friends, namely Jojo Terrencio (whom I knew from my Malacanang days), registered their indignation over the rendition of the National Anthem as it apparently didn't match the specifications of the Heraldic Code.

Anyway, putting that aside, I had to contend with a gazillion TV commercial interruptions. The commercials that caught my eye and really annoyed the heck out of me were government sponsored TV ads. It seemed that the entire Arroyo administration was doing a full court press in a propaganda war.

There was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with her TV ad saying that GDP continues to rise (a lie); then there was Tesda Director General Bobby Syjuco with his pitch for technical skills education; Finance Secretary Gary Teves and BIR Commissioner Escquivas telling everyone to pay their taxes or something; and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro giving a pitch for disaster preparedness by turning his last name into an acronym for thing you have to do to be disaster ready.

I've been hearing that Syjuco, Teves, and Teodoro are all running for public office in 2010. From a PR and Advertising perspective, you could see that these ads were placed not so much for vote conversion but for awareness. Perhaps, it was also an attempt to associate the personalities involved with Pacquiao's anticipated victory.

Status updates on Facebook said that the Teodoro TV ads got booed in movie theaters that were showing the pay-per-view fight.

What really got me seething was Pagcor Chairman Efraim C. Genuino's ad asking people to support the fight against drugs. And it is the height of irony and lack of circumspection to say that Pagcor is fighting drug addiction when THERE ARE MILLIONS MORE WHO ARE ADDICTED TO GAMBLING!

Pagcor, being the chief regulating agency for all casinos and gambling joints, has either made gambling addicts of millions of Filipinos or continues to fuel their addiction.

And what is this that I hear that Genuino is salivating over a P 6 Billion contract for cancer detection equipment? The supplier is actually offering a 10 percent "commission" or P 600 Million to anyone who can get President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to sign an order to get Pagcor to fund the project.

Anyway, there's really no mystery as to why or how the government got choice TV ad spots in the broadcast of Pacquiao fight.

The owner of Solar is Wilson Tieng whose company has virtually bought RPN9 (a sequestered TV station) and whose son Irwin is a congressman of the BUHAY PARTY LIST. If that isn't a favored status, I wouldn't know what to call it.

Anyway, GMA7 got flak for the annoying commercial load and in a report in Inquirer dot net:

But according to GMA 7 insiders, not a single centavo of ad revenue from the fight went to the network.

GMA 7’s partnership with Solar Entertainment, which holds broadcast rights to Pacquiao’s bouts, is a “blocktime deal,” said network officials, who declined to be named for lack of clearance to speak on the matter.

Bigger than De La Hoya fight

“That means that all advertising revenues go to Solar Entertainment. GMA 7 only gets a fixed amount, commensurate with the air time bought by Solar,” said one of the officials.

A Solar executive confirmed that ads from the Pacquiao-Hatton mainer, as well as from the undercards, delivered the biggest payday ever for the company, which has a lock on the Philippine broadcast rights for the Pacman’s fights up to 2011.

Jude Turcuato, Solar Sports vice president for sales and marketing, said Sunday’s blockbuster duel was bigger than the Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya showdown held five months ago.

“It’s not big percentage-wise but we’re coming from an already big base, the De La Hoya fight. The bottom line is this is the biggest,” said Turcuato.

He declined to give exact figures, but said the company definitely made more than P100 million on Sunday.

But one thing that is really going wrong with GMA7 is that nothing is restraining it from overloading any of its programs with commercials:

Not covered by ad cap
“The lower packages were considered sponsorships only,” the source said. “Companies that availed themselves of P10-P15-million packages were called co-presenters or presenters.”

A broadcast industry insider noted that by partnering with GMA 7, Solar could put in as many commercials as it wanted since the Kapuso network was not covered by the ad cap imposed by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP). (See “In the Know”)

Unlike its main rival ABS-CBN, GMA 7 is not a member of the KBP.

So, how much did the government fork out to Wilson Tieng?