Philippines: TV Ads of Presidential Candidates · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

There will be a presidential election in the Philippines next year. The election season has already started with candidates filing their certificates of candidacies in government election offices throughout the country.
To attract attention and to inform voters about their candidacy, presidential candidates need to produce and pay for the airing of TV ads. Several videos of candidates have been airing on TV already in the past few months. All of these TV ads were also uploaded on YouTube.
Pinoy Picks! provides an initial list of presidential candidates in the country. Shalapog's Blog is not satisfied with the present crop of candidates:
As you wake up in the morning you can start to smell that the season is fast approaching. You can see it in all corners of the street, the music on the radio, the busy people checking their list and including TV commercials. And here comes…the PRESIDENTIABLES!
This 2010 election, I am not that excited about it because I am not satisfied with the candidates and their portfolios. I do not know much about politics, even though I took Political Science as my collegiate course, However I do care about how the country would do with the next president.
Here are the TV ads of presidential candidates:
Senator Manny Villar wants to emphasize his humble beginnings:
The young Senator Chiz Escudero plays a superhero
Defense Secretary and administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro insists that intelligence and competence are needed in government
Senator Noynoy Aquino, and son of a former president, has the most star-studded political TV ad- music video
Former President Joseph Estrada is literally running again through a commercial for an anti-arthritis capsule
Scholar Danny Arao reviews these ads:
They are strong in form but lacking in substance. Even if they stress the need for genuine change there is no attempt to categorically express their stand on burning issues of the day.
One can argue that they are just trying to introduce themselves to the public, but isn't it more endearing to the public if they immediately talk about specific problems like human rights violations and the failure of agrarian reform?
Barrio Siete dislikes political advertisements
I hate political advertisements. To me it’s just a waste of money that should be spent elsewhere. I would like the candidates to spend their election funds on projects that would be beneficial to people in need.
Officially, I have no candidates yet. I’m still busy looking through candidates with my personal magnifying glass. There are the political ads, with their shots at informing the electorate of their platform, if there ever was one, but mostly their faces and their attempt of projecting themselves as candidates, pathetic as it may be.