Reports on Local Elections: Scant and Superficial
A Failure to Recognize the Paramount Importance of LGUs
THE CAMPAIGN period for the local elections officially began on March 27, Easter Sunday, as Filipinos capped the observance of Holy Week when the nation takes official break from work. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) prohibited any electoral activities on Holy Thursday and Good Friday which may have slowed the start of local campaigns.
CMFR File Photo
This was reflected as well in the media coverage of the local campaign. It had taken a whole week after the official start for media stories to report on the contest among hopefuls challenging incumbents, or on the long-standing rivalries among political clans in historic electoral hot-spots.
Actually, the issues of local government receive scant attention from national media all year round. But the imbalance of attention is dramatized during an election year when the coverage of local candidates pales in comparison to the amount of coverage given to national candidates.
Local politicians make up the political base of national candidates, which makes local politics critical to the results of the national race. All Philippine elections are in this sense always local and the media cannot afford to ignore their significance.
In terms of numbers, the positions for the House of Representatives, for provincial, city and municipal levels exceed the number of national seats.Furthermore, so much authority and discretion have devolved to these seats of power. Voters require more information from independent media about their choices to help them make sound decisions come Election Day.
Sporadic and Insubstantial
CMFR observed reports from the three main broadsheets Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star, and primetime news programs 24 Oras (GMA-7), Aksyon (TV5), and TV Patrol (ABS-CBN 2) from March 27 to April 3.
During the monitor period, news media reports pertaining to local elections were few and far between in the Bulletin, the Inquirer and the Star. When these appeared, these were relegated to the inside pages, reporting on campaign sorties, accusations of wrong-doing,
 Denying Voters the Right to ChooseA great majority of the positions at stake in the May 9 elections this year are in local government.They exceed by the thousands the 26 national posts of 24 seats for senators and one seat each for vice president and president. Citing data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), The Philippine Star reported that a total of 558 candidates are running for local posts unopposed. Of that number, 12 are running for governor unopposed; 11 for vice governor; 21 for city mayor; 23 for city vice mayor; 194 for municipal mayor and 226 for municipal vice mayor. Elections are at the heart of democracy with citizens delegating their sovereign powers. Candidates running unopposed deny the voter the right and responsibility to choose. The powers of local officials are far too vast to be merely handed to unopposed candidates—the only requirement for an unopposed candidate to assume the post he’s aspiring for being his getting at least one vote. The governor and vice governor, and the mayor and vice mayor, occupy the highest seats of power in local governments. They are at the helm of power in governance in their respective areas and thus play a huge role in guaranteeing the development and welfare of their constituencies…[Read More] |
or local politicians’ endorsement of national candidates. These were hardly helpful in forming sound voter judgment.
Conventional news criteria ruled media reports. Controversy drew a spate of reports on the exchange of verbal brickbat between rival candidates, as in the case of incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada and former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, and Makati Representative and now mayoral aspirant Abigail Binay and incumbent Makati Mayor Romulo“Kid” Peña. Most of these reports recorded the competing statements but did not go further to note the dynastic links and the endorsements which connect the national and local candidates.
Reports of election-related violence were also common. The most followed case was the shooting incident involving Calauan, Laguna Mayor Buenafrido Berris that resulted in the death of his two companions, one of whom was Emmanuel Peña, who was running for councilor.
The usual elements of the “horse race” gained space for the proclamation rallies of well-known local political rivals, such as the proclamation rallies of Estrada and Lim in Manila and those of Binay and Peña in Makati. But these were merely superficial notes, as though reporting on a social event, limited to recording who were there and quotes from the main players.
No reports documented track records in office, no note of the length of time the candidate or family members have been in office. Articles did not mention platforms or policy positions on pertinent issues.
Usual Grind for TV News
Reports aired by the primetime TV news programs, on the other hand, did not offer anything different. Their coverage included roughly the same topics covered by the newspapers.
Broadcast media also paid much attention to the proclamation rallies of known political figures such as Estrada and Lim in Manila, and Binay and Peña in Makati. Campaign sorties of other local candidates were also reported. Like the reports in print, these reported only what the candidates said during their political rallies.
As observed in print, there were also more reports in the news programs about candidates for national office rather than those running for local posts. Although there were reports pertaining to local campaigns, these were often about their endorsement of national candidates such as Mayor Estrada’s declaring his support for senators Grace Poe and Bongbong Marcos for president and vice president, respectively; vice presidential aspirant and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo’s  getting the support of  local officials in Bukidnon and Maguindanao; and of One Cebu’s declaration of support for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte after the coalition dumped Vice President Jejomar Binay. Incidents of election-related violence were also reported by the news programs, particularly the incident involving Calauan City Mayor Berris.
The coverage of local candidates was also notably Metro Manila-centric as most of the reports on local elections were about political rivalries in Caloocan, Manila, Makati, and Malabon.
Informative ExceptionsÂ
Though rare, some were informative, such as a report by the Star about the start of the local campaign period that gave readers an idea how many candidates are vying for local positions in the coming election. (“Campaign for local bets off to slow start—Comelec,” Star, March 27, 2016)
The Inquirer,in thefront page of its March 27 issue,focused on prominent candidates who are running unopposed in provinces, districts, and cities across the country. The report also came with aninfographic showing the number of local positions at stake and the number of unopposed candidates, and provided the total number of registered voters in the country, as well as the top ten vote-rich provinces. (“GMA, Imee lead unopposed bets,” Inquirer, March 27, 2016)
The most notable effort in reporting local candidates came from the Inquirer. Beginning March 30, the Inquirer, in its “Across the Nation” section, published special reports featuring the candidates from specific localities and listed their platforms and concrete plans of action to address specific issues in their areas.
During the monitor period, the Inquirer published four such reports:
- Election 2016: Agenda of the Baguio City Mayor (March 30)
- Election 2016: Agenda of the Batangas Governor (March 31)
- Election 2016: Agenda of the Iloilo City Mayor (April 2)
- Election 2016: Agenda of the ARMM Governor (April 3)
The Inquirer not only provided information to help voters know their candidates better — it also raised the bar for reporting local elections for the national audience.
A few informative reports did manage to air on TV. A brief report narrated by TV5’s Aksyon anchor Luchi Cruz-Valdez on March 28 presented the number of unopposed candidates running for local office, citing examples such as Representative Mercedes Alvarez, Mayor Genaro Alvarez and Vice Mayor Paul Alvarez in Negros Occidental; Governor Lilia “Nanay” Pineda, Vice Governor Dennis “Delta” Pineda and Rep. Gloria Arroyo in Pampanga; Governor Ryan Singson and Vice Governor Gerry Singson in Ilocos Sur; and Governor Imee Marcos in Ilocos Norte.
A similar report of ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrolon March 31 added an analysis of the impact of the support of local candidates on the chances of candidates for national office. The “KampanyaSerye” segment aired on TV Patrol had been releasing special reports on local politics even before the official start of the local campaign period.  (“Malapitan vs. Echiverri ng Caloocan: Dating magkaalyado, magkaribal ngayon, March 30; and “Labanan sa pagka-alkalde sa Mandaluyong, Marikina at Taguig,” April 1)
GMA-7’s 24 Oras also aired reports about local politics, focusing on rivalries in different localities in its “Karibal” special report series aired last March.
Local Power and Authority
Compared to the total number of national positions—one president, one vice president, and 24 senators for a total of 26—the combined number of government positions at the local level far outnumber that of the former by several thousands.
In the House of Representatives alone, 235 positions are at stake. There are 81 posts each for governor and vice governor; 145 each for city mayors and vice mayors; 1,489 each for municipal mayors and vice mayors; one governor and one vice governor for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM); and 24 ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly members, for a total of 3,691.
The governing units on the provincial level include 772 for the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board); 1,610 for the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council), and over 11,000 for the members of the Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council).
Together with the 3,691 posts noted earlier, the total comes to at least 17,000 local posts being up for grabs in the 2016 elections.
These numbers reflect the comprehensive mandate given to local government units (LGUs) to ensure public welfare, infrastructure development, and social services, in addition to their fiscal responsibility and accountability as mandated by the Local Government Code of the Philippines (Republic Act 7160).
This means that the local government officials are the ones with whom citizens will have the most contact after the elections. They should also be the ones who should be held accountable for the lack of services and the burden of hardship borne by the public when they fail.
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