MANILA, Philippines ? With more than a month before the elections, administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro will be making himself more visible on television and heard on radio with a barrage campaign advertisements to start either this weekend or early next week, his spokesman said Thursday.
Lawyer Mike Toledo said Teodoro?s radio and TV ads, which the former defense secretary helped conceptualize, would ?definitely clog the airwaves.?
With the number of times that the ads are scheduled to appear, talk of funding problems within the administration Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats party would be dispelled, said Toledo.
?The ads will really show that contrary to rumors or misinformation or disinformation, support and funding to Gibo [his nickname] Teodoro?s successful presidential campaign is there,? Toledo said.
Talk has been swirling that the party was being hounded by funding problems after lawyers Raul Lambino and Silvestre Bello III, two of the six senatorial candidates in Teodoro?s slate and Teodoro?s running mate, actor Edu Manzano, complained that they have yet to receive adequate support for their campaign.
From being the second biggest spender in TV ads during the pre-campaign period from Nov. 1, 2009 to Jan. 31, 2010, shelling out P407 million, Teodoro cut down on his spending at the start of the official campaign.
According to data by the media monitoring agency Nielsen Media, which was released by the consortium Pera?t Politika and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Teodoro put in a placement for a television ad amounting to P266,092 from February 9 to March 8.
Toledo said the party was now looking into the timing of future ads on television.
?There is a crescendo now of ads from the other parties and although the people are still undecided, these ads will help them get the message from our presidential candidate,? he said.
Toledo described the ads that were coming out as ?thematic in nature and something that will send one clear message.?
?Under a Teodoro administration, this is what he will do to this problem,? he added.
One of the ads, he said would focus on putting food on the table and making food prices affordable. Another ad will show how Teodoro intends to ensure job security for the Filipinos by making the country investment-friendly to continuously entice investors and by providing continuous training to the workers.
Teodoro will also come out in a campaign ad that is focused on the youth, depicting them as ?very intelligent, discerning and idealistic and thus they will not be swayed by survey results, political ads and sheer popularity,? according to Toledo.
Toledo said that Teodoro has been topping mock polls in various schools and universities and this showed that the youth vote was for the administration standard-bearer.
Of the 50 million registered voters, Toledo said about 52 percent belonged to the youth from 18 to 39 years old. If Teodoro gets majority of this, then he is assured of the presidency in the May 10 elections, Toledo said.