COMELEC advised celebrities not to use their platforms or shows to endorse political candidates.
COMELEC — On Friday, the Commission on Elections advised celebrities not to use their platforms or shows to endorse political candidates in the 2022 elections.
COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez said that only political candidates should take a leave from their shows or programs and not their celebrity endorsers.
Citing Section 6.6 of Republic Act 9006 (Fair Election Act), Jimenez said in an online press briefing that political candidates who have programs should take a leave from their programs.
“We do not refer to endorsers, but again it’s good practice to not use their platforms to campaign because that might become an issue in terms of using these platforms for campaign purposes,” Jimenez said. “That will be considered donated advertising time eh, so that will be an issue.“
The 90-day campaign period for national posts in the 2022 elections started last February 8.
Like in previous elections, some celebrities have openly endorsed their preferred political candidates, with some even hosting the proclamation rallies of their political bets.
“Referring to candidates, in the first place, for them to take a leave, but for endorsers to maybe not use their programs or platforms to campaign for candidates because that might be considered donated air time,” Jimenez said.
The poll body, for its part, had provided a platform for free live-streaming of online political rallies of national candidates amidst the pandemic.
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Meanwhile, the poll body said on Thursday that around 393 YouTube channels of political candidates in the 2022 elections have already been verified.
According to Jimenez, they have worked with YouTube to verify those YouTube channels, regardless of the number of subscribers, and they will continue to work in close coordination as they strived to push out information that will be helpful to the voters via those reliable channels.
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