The Las Piñas congresswoman's pa-contest is a good case study of how different franchise holders use a public resource such as broadcast frequency, and is another example of the need for reforms toward making elections fairer in the Philippines

Now that the cat is out of the bag — the Villar camp itself announced the decision of Las Piñas Representative Camille Villar to run for senator in 2025 — media and election watchdogs may find it useful to check how the Villar family is using its media enterprise to support her bid for higher office.

The Villars’ ALLTV has frequently been airing ads featuring Camille enticing viewers to join a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-approved raffle contest. ALLTV now uses the Channel 2 frequency that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) awarded to real estate tycoon Manny Villar’s Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS) over two years ago, under the Duterte administration.

The raffle from July 1 to August 25 gives out P500 to 20 winners daily (P10,000 daily or P560,000 in total), and there will be eight winners of a house and lot from the Villars’ Vista Land. So far, there have been four house-and-lot winners who have been ecstatic about their luck, and some of the in-house ads show the winners being ever so grateful to Camille.

The house and lots being raffled appear to be among the low-cost housing units of the Villars’ mass housing developer Bria Homes, a subsidiary of publicly listed Golden MV Holdings Incorporated (formerly Golden Bria Holdings), one of largest real estate companies in the Philippines.

The one-floor unit could cost around P1 million to P2 million, depending on the location, as a two-level Bria Homes unit costs between P3 million to P6 million. Bria Homes has built over 29,000 low-cost houses in at least 22 provinces across the country, says its website.

To most people, especially those who no longer watch free television, those ads are probably under their radar, given that Channel 2 is no longer a high-rating channel, unlike when the frequency was still with ABS-CBN.

ALLTV is now “Jeepney TV on ALLTV,” which mainly airs ABS-CBN’s old library content, including teleseryes (television series) like Pangako Sa ‘Yo, Forevermore, On the Wings of Love, and soon, Dyesebel. These shows helped push to stardom the love teams of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, and Nadine Lustre and James Reid, and Anne Curtis and Sam Milby, respectively.

Camille’s ads air more frequently during prime time from 6 pm to 10 pm when these once-popular hit shows are seen on free television.

Aside from airing teleseryes and comedies, ALLTV also airs ABS-CBN’s flagship news program TV Patrol live and its news briefs show TV Patrol Express, as well as ABS-CBN’s longest-running noon show, It’s Showtime. Camille’s raffle contest is shown during TV Patrol on ALLTV, but not on other analog and digital channel platforms like Brother Eddie Villanueva’s A2Z and House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s Prime TV where TV Patrol now airs post-shutdown.

Villar-ABS-CBN partnership

After securing the Channel 2 frequency and digital Channel 16 in January 2022, AMBS signed some Kapamilya talent like actress Toni Gonzaga, as well as controversial television host Willie Revillame, only to hit pause on their shows after six months from their September 2022 launch. ALLTV then went on a semi-hiatus until signs of another go emerged in December 2023 with Villar re-launching K-Lite 103.5 FM as ALL RADIO. 

Then came the surprise partnership with ABS-CBN on April 23, 2024. No less than the former Senate president and 2010 presidential candidate himself, with Camille as All Value Holdings Corporation president and CEO, graced the signing ceremony of the partnership with the Lopezes. Camille spoke on behalf of the Villar family during the launch in Villar’s Brittany Hotel in Villar City. 

Recall that Villar was one of 70 members of the House of Representatives who voted against a new franchise for ABS-CBN in July 2020, purportedly for legal violations and other issues that representatives of government agencies themselves testified to be unfounded or inaccurate.

“We’re very proud and honored to be celebrating today the start of what we hope is going to be a long, fruitful and good partnership between AMBS and ALLTV as well as ABS-CBN,” Ms. Villar said in April. “We’re very excited to welcome TV Patrol, which as you all know is the longest running news show in the Philippines. We’re very honored to have them in ALLTV as well as the content from Jeepney TV.”

She had also said they were looking forward to a “long and fruitful partnership between ABS-CBN and AMBS.” 

Speaking on behalf of ABS-CBN during the April event, CEO Carlo Katigbak said the partnership was a long time coming. He thanked Mr. Villar, an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte (who once said he would even die for Mr. Villar), for “welcoming” ABS-CBN to its former network. 

Without mentioning Camille as one of those responsible for the loss of ABS-CBN’s lucrative broadcast business, Katigbak appealed to those pained by the rejection of ABS-CBN franchise to forget the past.

“I know there are some who feel some pain over our return to our former channel, a home that was once ours. But in all humility, let’s try and put all of the past behind us and embrace instead our mission to serve the Filipino, wherever they may be,” he said. “There’s been a persistent clamor for TV Patrol’s credible news and information to reach the audience it once had. I hope that by working together with ALLTV, we’re once again able to deliver this service to all our kababayans (countrymen).”

The partnership should be a boon to ABS-CBN, especially to TV Patrol, whose ratings fell after ABS-CBN lost its broadcast business. TV Patrol was the top and influential news program for decades until former President Rodrigo Duterte made sure it would not get its franchise renewed.

Duterte’s beef with ABS-CBN was rooted in ABS-CBN’s failure to air some of his political ads in the 2016 presidential elections despite having already paid for it. Katigbak had said during the House franchise hearings they could no longer air those ads due to the limit on advertisements, and that ABS-CBN tried to refund the payment but was rejected by the Duterte camp.

Four years later, with Channel 2 now with the Villars, there’s no limit to the ads that Camille can air, given that they own AMBS.

Camille’s raffle ads won’t count as political ads, of course, since she’s not officially a candidate until she files her certificate of candidacy (COC) between the filing period of October 1 to 8 or just over 30 days after her in-house ads end on August 25.

After she files her COC, only then will she be covered by Section 6 of Republic Act 9006 or the Fair Election Act of 2001 which states that each candidate or political party for a national post can only have a total of 120 minutes of television ads per station and 180 minutes of radio ads per station.

Hope and reality

Whether the ads will do well among the electorate just as Cynthia Villar’s 2012 “Hanepbuhay” political ads did would require marketing research and analysis. But based on comments on ALLTV’s Facebook posts, most are understandably happy and excited to win, especially those in need. 

“Sana palarin manalo. Kahit ‘andito kami sa Manila, napakahirap ng buhay, nawalan kami ng trabaho…. Sana naman po matulungan ‘nyo kami,” said netizen Tejada Aguirre in a comment on the ad’s ALLTV Facebook post. 

(I hope I get lucky and win. Even if we’re in Manila, life is so hard, we lost our job…. We hope you can help us.)

Other netizens who commented in other social media accounts where the ad has been cross-posted, saw what the ad was really for. 

“Hahaha siya talaga ng kinuhang model? Sa dami nilang pera hindi man lang naghire ng artista para sa promo,” said netizen Ron Mia.  (Hahaha, they really got her as the model? They have so much money but they didn’t even hire an actor for the promo.)

“Malapit na talaga ang eleksyon,” chimed Proud Kakampink Forever. (The election is really near.)

“Ito na nga ‘yung sinasabi na gagamitn lang ng mga Villar yung TV station para sa politika, nagumpisa na,” said netizen Yeng Montefalcon.  (This is what they were saying that the Villars would use the TV station for politics. It’s started.)

Another commented that Camille is obviously a “replacement” for her mother, Senator Cynthia Villar, who is bowing out of the Senate after two terms in 2025.

The Villars, veterans in the world of politics, know that those ads won’t be enough to ensure Camille’s victory in what is expected to be a very tight senatorial race in 2025. 

Thus, they’ve started airing radio ads of Camille, paid for by her brother Paolo, on leading radio stations such as GMA’s radio DZBB in the run-up to the filing of COCs.

Camille’s pa-contest is a good case study of how different franchise holders use a public resource such as broadcast frequency, and is another example of the need for reforms toward making elections fairer in the Philippines. – Rappler.com

ALSO ON RAPPLER

• ABS-CBN frequencies are Duterte’s ‘payback’ to Villars – Bayan Muna
• Sipag at Tiyaga, Mr Palengke and 4 other memorable ads
• And the most memorable and effective political ads are…
• 2022 candidates run over P20 billion worth of ads halfway through campaign
• Manny Villar is top Filipino billionaire, 232nd richest in Forbes global list
• Camille Villar attends IESE business school