The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bikol (BAYAN-Bikol) issued a challenge to Ako Bicol party list (AKB) to file a truthful statement of their campaign donations and expenses to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) immediately.
According to Tessa Lopez, public information of BAYAN-Bikol, “data from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) show that Ako Bicol incurred a total of P17.92 million in political ads. Ninety percent of that amount or about P16.14 million went to airing TV ads while P1.78 million was used to buy spots in various radio stations. Though this is already a considerable amount considering that they are supposed to be representing marginalized sectors, we do not believe that this is the true total of their campaign expenses,”
“We have been bombarded by AKB ads even before the start of the campaign period in both national and local TV, radio and print. Also we have documented AKB billboards in every town entrance of Bicol as early as 2009 and their mobile propaganda teams (MPT) have been going around Bicol towns playing its campaign jingle since January 2010. Aside from these are the millions of streamers, stickers and posters of AKB on all of the Co’s vehicles and establishments, even the electronic jeep of Embarcadero still has AKB advertisements on it,” added Lopez.
“AKB also requires many of its beneficiaries to be recorded on video thanking them for their financial support, scholarships and whatever, this can easily be seen on some of its advertisements where the beneficiaries are asked to read a prepared statement by AKB. They even do this to groups who are doing relief operations,” she said.
“It is good to help but it is better if there are no strings attached. No ulterior motive should be behind one’s assistance but in AKB’s case, it is obvious that it is not. If they are really sincere in helping then they should do so without expecting anything in return, like a Congress seat for example,” ended Lopez.
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