MANILA - Those expensive "infomercials," aimed at wooing voters, could haunt those aspiring for elective positions next year.

Ferdinand Rafanan, legal department chief of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said prospective candidates would have to pay dearly for those infomercials that have been flooding the airwaves.

“They will be made answerable for engaging in premature campaigning, as laid down by the Supreme Court,” Rafanan told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.

The Supreme Court (SC), by a vote of 8-7, found Mayor Rosalinda Penera of Sta. Monica, Surigao del Norte guilty of premature campaigning for violating Section 80 of the Omnibus Election Code during the 2007 mid-term elections.

Section 80 of the Code states that: "It shall be unlawful for any person whether or not a voter or candidate, or any party or association of persons, to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity, except during the campaign period.”

Motorcade, candies

Penera was charged with premature campaigning by losing rival Edgar Andanar after her motorcade of supporters accompanied her when she filed her certificate of candidacy. Her supporters also distributed candies.

The mayor, in her defense, argued that there was no grandstanding in the motorcade to prop up her candidacy. Besides, she had not yet filed her candidacy at the time of the alleged violation.

The official campaign period only starts the day after the deadline of the filing of certificate of candidacy.

But the court said that not being a candidate yet is not a valid excuse to engage in a premature campaign, stressing that such offenses can be committed by a person who is not a candidate.

“We cannot stress strongly enough that premature campaigning is a pernicious act that is continuously threatening to undermine the conduct of fair and credible elections in our country, no matter how great or small the acts constituting the same are,” the Court said.

The Court added: “Obviously, it is only at the start of the campaign period, when the person officially becomes a candidate that the undue and iniquitous advantage of his/her prior acts, constituting premature campaigning, shall accrue to his/her benefit.”

Drastic change

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago had previously asked the Comelec to sanction personalities obviously engaged in courting voters with their infomercials.

Prior to this new SC ruling, the Comelec had said it could not do anything against erring aspirants because they are not officially candidates yet.
    
However, the latest SC ruling changes the game drastically.

Rafanan said that the decision should serve as fair warning to aspiring candidates who are running for national and local positions.

“This should teach them a lesson. This is a landmark decision but it's very shaky kasi, very close,” he said.

Asked if the Comelec would, on its own, go after the erring candidates once they have filed their certificate of candidacies, Rafanan was temperate.

He said potential candidates, who have been airing politically-loaded infomercials, should be forewarned that they are violating the law in light of the SC ruling.

While there are political ads whose intentions are obvious, some are thinly veiled meant to introduce the person in the ad to a wider audience. Hundreds of millions of pesos have reportedly been spent by prospective candidates to air their infomercials.