Much like ad spending on the air waves, presidential candidates Manuel Villar and Benigno Aquino III are the highest spenders in street propaganda.

The Consortium of Electoral Reforms (CER) recorded that Villar spent P889,378.40 on propaganda materials from February 9 to March 28.

CER defined “propaganda” materials as posters, tarpaulins (streamers made of vinyl fabric), brochures and transit ads.

Aquino, on the other hand, is the highest spender on public meetings releasing P2.5 million for rallies, sorties, motorcades and caucuses. (Read: Villar also dominates 'ground war')

The CER is part of the Pera at Pulitika (PaP) consortium which monitors election spending and finance.

They conducted the research in 10 major cities across the country: Baguio City (Northern Luzon); San Fernando City, Pampanga (Central Luzon); Quezon City (National Capital Region); Lucena City (Southern Tagalog); Legazpi City, Albay (Bicol Region); Iloilo City and Cebu City in the Visayas; and Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, and Davao in Mindanao.

They monitored ground propaganda of 4 presidential candidates namely Aquino, Villar, Gilbert Teodoro and Joseph Estrada in public areas.

While both Aquino and Villar spent a lot for street propaganda, Gladstone Cuarteros, coordinator of the field monitoring project CER, observed that Estrada's spending for ground spending has been consistently low throughout their 7-week monitoring.

Cuarteros maintained that “Villar is most diligent in ground war.” This is due to his well-oiled and properly organized machinery, he said.

Ramon Casiple, chairman of CER, said that they did not monitor the other 5 candidates because “they are not actually expected to spend as much as the 4 (candidates monitored)” as they are trailing behind in surveys.

Other than that, he added that it is a matter of “resource management” for the consortium. They chose to monitor the top 4 candidates because they also expected the remaining candidates' presence in ground propaganda.

“There simply are no posters for those (5 unmonitored candidates),” he said.

The results were presented at the PaP forum, Tuesday.  

Propaganda Materials Spending (in PhP)

Source: Consortium on Electoral Reforms

Public Meetings Spending (in PhP)

Source: Consortium on Electoral Reform

Big public meetings

There were big public gatherings in the 7-week campaign period so far recorded by the CER.

Aquino had the EDSA celebration rally at the Araneta Coliseum last February 25. During the same day, Villar had a “Rocktropa-Wowowee” concert at the SM Mall of Asia.

Villar followed with a series of Rocktropa-Wowowee concerts in Cabanatuan City (March 14), Lucena City (March 21) and Naga City (March 27).

Cuarteros said that Villar could have spent P3-million per concert. The amount, he said, is the group's estimated production cost for the show “Wowowee”, an ABS-CBN noontime show whose hosts are part of Villar's concerts.

This was not recorded since it has not yet been verified.

Teodoro only had one “big event”. This was at the start of the campaign period at the Ynares Center (February 9).

Estrada's kick off campaign in Plaza Miranda last February 9 was also jotted down by the group as a “big event.” 

How it was computed

Cuarteros said that their team, composed of 18 volunteers, contacted the places where candidates had rallies and also tallied the number of streamers and their sizes.

They also contacted printing presses where the materials were manufactured.

He said that they had certain limitations to getting price ranges of propaganda material printed in a particular press.

He shared that they even pretended, over the phone, to be members of a political camp wanting to print materials just so they could get the data they need since most of the time, they could not get price ranges.

Based on quotations from different printing presses, they average the amount each candidate spent per square feet of a streamer and they used that average to compute the amount spent for propaganda materials.  

Pricelist of Campaign Materials

Source: Consortium on Electoral Reforms 

Media concentration

Grace Gorospe-Jamon, a member of PAP, said that they noticed that there is much concentration on media in the upcoming elections.

Casiple said that although television ads are expensive, the reach is wider. This saves the politicians time to go from one place to another.

It is also helpful when campaign organizers suggest where the candidate should go and how many times the candidate needs to go back in order to win a vote. 

Personal touch

Casiple said that a candidate's “personal touch” will still enamor voters more than television ads.

“People appreciate the time and effort (when they visit a locality),” he said.

Cuarteros said that they would be expecting more ground propaganda in the upcoming weeks as ground work really gets dirty in local elections, which only started March 26.