Comelec readies rules on talent fees for endorsers
Credit to Author: Rhodina Villanueva| Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will soon require candidates to include talent fees of influencers and celebrities in their campaign expenditures in the May midterm elections.
“We will come up with a resolution on the presumption that certain personalities, celebrities, vloggers and media influencers are engaged by the candidate even if they say these were done for free,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in a briefing yesterday.
“We will be issuing next week (a resolution), and the political and finance committee will have us approve it. It will recommend to us a provision stating presumption of paid service,” he added.
The poll chief referred to paid service as “any person, including influencer, content creator and celebrity who shall openly support, endorse and promote or otherwise the campaign of any candidate using print, broadcast media, social media or other electronic mass communication is presumed as a contractor and whose service is paid by such candidate or party benefited therefrom.”
Comelec also said that content shall “include but not limited to any vlog, blog, podcast, meme, video, image, post, television or radio program and advertisement which promote the victory or defeat of the candidate or party.”
Garcia also said that what the Comelec wants is for proper monitoring of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), hence they hope to have the new provision approved by the commission next week.
Likewise, Garcia added that this expenditure concerning content creators and vloggers should also be included in the Statement of Contributions and Expenditures 30 days after the elections.
Under the proposed policy, candidates will be required to declare in their SOCE the amount they paid any influencer, vlogger or celebrity.
In a new senatorial survey, administration bets saw big jumps in ratings, bolstered by heavy spending on advertisements, according to a political analyst.
In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, Dindo Manhit, president of research firm Stratbase, said that the challenge among the senatorial candidates is how to sustain it in the coming 90-day campaign period that would start on Feb. 12.
“We are in what we call pre-election period, so there (are) no restrictions on advertising. Those who had jumped notches had fairly heavy advertising over the past months since September, and I think they want to build that momentum because when we hit the campaign period on Feb. 12 onwards, there will be limitations,” he said.
“They are trying to position themselves. The challenge now is can they sustain it and will the Marcos coalition push through his own coalition? Can the provincial and the congressional level deliver a machinery for the rest of his team?” he added.
Manhit said that the decline in the survey ratings of presidential sister and reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos, who is said to be one of the biggest ad spenders during the pre-campaign period, was due to the politics she played between her brother, President Marcos and the Duterte family.
“She contradicted her brother. She loses the support of the Marcos vote and also her (intent) to show politics-wise or the positioning with the Dutertes. She is also not perceived as part of the Duterte camp,” the analyst explained.
Senator Marcos landed in 13th place. The latest survey conducted by Stratbase involving 1,800 respondents showed that ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo landed in first place with former senator Tito Sotto in second place.
The biggest gainer was Sen. Lito Lapid, who jumped from his 11th place in December 2024 to third-fourth place. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Edith Regalado