By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Because of my tight schedules last Monday I failed to join the media interview in my city with administration presidential bet Mar Roxas when he whistled stops in the cities of Dagupan and San Carlos and Rosales, Pangasinan.
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| STUMP.Administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas exhorts last Monday the market goers at his ala-town hall meeting at the market place of Dagupan City. After Dagupan City, Roxas and party whistled stops in San Carlos City and Rosales, Pangasinan. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA |
I should be asking him if he is open for the United States to have bases in the Philippines amid the active incursions of China on our islets and reefs at the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoals.
I should be asking him why he was no longer aggressive these days on his TV ads at GMA-7 and ABS-CBN unlike last August 15 to September 15 where he had a daily average of nine infomercials in each of the two giant TV stations where he paid, according to media reports, P257 million to double his pathetic survey numbers from 10% last June to 20% in September 2 to 5 that landed him in No. 2 at Pulse Asia’s poll.
I should be asking him where did he get that huge amount on TV ads and the alleged P100 million billboards his supporters erected all over the country.
Roxas' Statement of Assets & Liabilities (SALN) last year was a net worth of P202, 080, 452. 71. It does not mean that he poured it all in August's TV ads because he had donors too from other sources. I hope Roxas submit to the Comelec those tens of millions of pesos of donations after the election as mandated by the Omnibus Election Code.
I should be asking him that in the 210 KIA utility vehicles bought by the Department of Interior & Local Government, he used to head, for the Philippine National Police, each of the cars cost the government P1.9 million but in reality, according to car experts, the price should be P1, 160,000 only.
“Where did the P740,000 for each cars or P155 million overpriced for the entirety of the purchased go? Why there was no significant discount since the government bought them by bulk?” my posers would be coined like that.
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At the ala town hall meeting at the Malimgas Market I bumped into a Bombo Reporter whose station interviewed earlier Roxas for 30 minutes.
“Magkano singil ninyo kada minute, P2000 or P60,000 sa kabu-unan ng trenta minutos?”
He told me Roxas paid P50, 000 for that 30 minutes media exposure on the No.1 provincial radio station.
"You should be asking him the tough questions I should be asking him ," I told him.
But the reporter told me since it was a paid broadcast, the posers have been fed to them by the P.R of the presidential candidate.
I was curious about the P50 thousand for 30 minutes price since early this year, two gubernatorial wannabe in my province have been paying P1000 per minute or P30,000 a day in a 30 minutes bloc time program to promote their candidacy.
With all these huge monies I mentioned, who says Philippine presidential election is for those who have met the following qualifications like: 1. Natural born citizen of the Philippines;2. Registered voter; 3. Able to read and write; 4. At least 40 years of age on the day of election; 5. Resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the election as what the Philippine Constitution provides?
If you cannot show a respectable sum before the eyes of the Commission on Election to launch an effective campaign nationwide, those basic Constitutional requirements are nothing because the Comelec has the power to strike you out in the race because you are a nuisance candidate as based on your financial capacity.