THE CAMPAIGN

The X-Men: The Story of Activists-Turned Political Consultants

With a Little Help from (U.S.) Friends

Much Ado about Numbers

Campaigning, Filipino Style

Spinning the News

Half-Truths in Advertising

Campaigns on the High-Tech Road

Songs in the Key of Politics

PHOTO ESSAY

The Presidency as Image

ELECTION PERSPECTIVES

Elections are like Water

Between Tinsel and Trapo

The Enigma of the Popular Will

VOTER'S VOICE

First-time Voter

Regular Voter

Non-Voter

Hope and Elections in Payatas

THE LIGHTER SIDE

Making (Non)Sense of Politics

Election Lexicon

Quickie Quiz for the Politically Insane

PERHAPS the unsuspecting public should be thankful that the country still has a relatively tiny community of campaign management experts, resulting in often-chaotic campaigns that either reveal more than the candidate wants the public to know, or reveal so little that the voters are left annoyed. In truth, present Philippine campaigns are quite like those in the United States were more than 100 years ago. In The Political Persuaders, which was published in 1970, Nimmo writes, "A century ago, candidates relied on their wits, their friends, and a few trusted allies to mount a campaign for office. Few men specialized in selling political advice. The campaign specialists of that day were primarily party politicians."

	Joseph Estrada is mobbed by adoring crowds during his 1998 campaign.

According to Nimmo, the campaign management industry is a "direct descendant of the public-relations profession" that became popular in the 1920s. That was when U.S. capitalists were under attack by consumers who were reading in newspapers about unsavory business practices. Countering such criticism required a specialist who could proclaim the good side of U.S. industry. Thus was born the PR agent. "In the process," Nimmo continues, these PR people "made increasingly adroit use of the means of mass communication; the result was the burgeoning field of mass advertising." It would not be long before public relations and mass advertising would cross over to the world of politics, especially with the rise of television, and give birth to a profession that proclaims the good side of political candidates.

Nimmo recounts that election campaigns soon became a battle for public exposure. That battle, however, hasn't been easily fought and won. Many other things compete for the voters' attention, and candidates need people who are masters not only at constructing the candidate's message and image, but also at sending these in the most effective way that will make full use of manpower, time, and limited resources. In short, campaigns need strategies.

The U.S.-trained Tiquia, formerly a legislative staff member in the Philippine and U.S. Congresses, defines the ingredients that make for a good campaign strategy. These are listed in a book entitled Campaign Politics: defining the voting population being targeted, creating the message to be communicated, managing resources, timing, and tactics.

Tactics include direct voter contact such as campaign events, rallies, and even door-to-door campaigning, and indirect tactics like media advertisements, billboards, and campaign paraphernalia.

Having a professional campaign team to implement the strategy is another necessity. The team is supposed to put order into the traditionally topsy-turvy exercises called campaigns. In this country, however, third-world realities can get in the way.

For instance, Tiquia says, there are times when a candidate hires a professional campaign team that may find itself clashing with family members, or with yet another professional team working for the same politician. Problems like these only slow down the campaign.

Campaign Politics also advises politicians to plot their moves way in advance, get their hands on the best people before the competition beats them to it, and plan carefully how resources are to be spent. But there's that mañana habit of the Filipino-his penchant for not planning ahead and waiting till the last minute-which can wreak havoc on the campaign in many ways. As examples, Tiquia cites candidates who are buying TV spots only now, and are finding out that there are none available because an enterprising agency had purchased all that was left months ago. It is now selling these "on the secondary market" at much higher rates.

There were, however, a few who bought spots early, and at rates that were far, far cheaper. Among the more visible swift-footed ones are presidential candidate Raul Roco and Panfilo Lacson, whose ads had been airing regularly since the campaign started, and senatorial candidate Mar Roxas.

As if operating in such a third-world conditions weren't enough, political professionals in the Philippines also have to deal with obsessive-compulsive candidates who try to control the campaign every step of the way. Among the cardinal rules for campaigns, says one of the political consultants interviewed for this piece, is that "a candidate cannot think and campaign at the same time; a candidate shouldn't handle his or her own campaign."

But most candidates refuse to leave things to the experts. Despite the enormity of her duties as president and candidate, Gloria Arroyo still decides where her campaigns sorties will go, political consultants say. Even members of her campaign still cannot fathom why she chose to launch her presidential bid in the hills of Cavinti, Laguna. Observers could only guess that feng shui might have had something to do with it; taking the team to high ground probably bodes good luck, they said. But after Cavinti, the president went north, leaving observers still trying to discern a pattern in her campaigning — if there was really any at all. One consultant, though, says, "Look at the route she has taken, and you'll see that it's like she's drawing the number eight on the map-she goes up, she goes down, forward, then backward."

Poe is said to be no different, at least as far as his political rallies are concerned. "Remember that he's a movie director, so he wants to have a say in how his rallies are produced," says a political professional. But the king of Philippine movies is also a political neophyte, which has unfortunately resulted in Poe being kept in an artificial world where everything is stage-managed. Hence, every interview, every appearance has to be scripted. And having written lines for scripts, Poe tends to have a say in how his campaign is managed.

"The best candidate surrenders himself to his handlers," says another political consultant. And if there was one who embodied this, it was Joseph 'Erap' Estrada in 1998.

"Erap was a good follower in the sense that when you said the schedule was like this, even if it was so hot or he was already dead tired, he would still follow the schedule to the letter," says Lito Banayo, who was on Estrada's 1998 campaign team, and is now on Lacson's. "That's why he was a joy to handle. Perhaps because he was an actor, he was used to having a call time, he had to be on the set at this certain time. He (carried that) discipline in the campaign."

But another plus factor in the Estrada campaign was its near-perfect machinery, which was due to a generous influx of funds. Ample funds and resources make a large part of a successful campaign. Reli German even says, "The three most important things (in a campaign) are money, money, and money."

The Estrada campaign in 1998 had that in huge quantities. Recalls Banayo: "There were really a lot of people who helped in that campaign by way of cash as well as material donations." A feature of Estrada's campaign sorties, for instance, were the motorcades and caravans where Estrada would appear beside his showbiz friends Poe and Nora Aunor, and they would then toss candies to the crowd. Banayo says they never ran out of candies because the supplies just kept coming.

Banayo explains the "symbiotic relationship" of campaign elements: "Once the perception or image of a candidate improves, the survey results become stacked in his or her favor, the numbers go up, the resources will pour in accordingly."

Making the candidate more visible, his image more winnable, translates into more campaign contributors. Traditionally, political consultants say, donors such as Filipino-Chinese businesspeople who put in large sums of money into election campaign, initially give equal amounts to all candidates. The money reportedly starts getting bigger only by April, when donors have a clearer idea who among the candidates is pulling away from the pack, and likely to lead the race.

But Tiquia laments how fundraising, like the other aspects, remains a hidden but very important facet of Philippine campaigns. Candidates do not, in the course of the campaign, reveal who their funders are, and methods for raising funds are not always above board. In the United States, Tiquia notes, fundraising is a profession. Professional fundraisers' methods include organizing events or dinners, or sending out mail asking supporters to contribute to the campaign kitty. There are limits to the amounts supporters can donate. In this country, it is the field of contributors that is limited. The money comes mostly from Filipino-Chinese businesspeople; the bigger players are the likes of Lucio Tan and Eduardo Cojuangco, whose hearts, minds, and pocket the candidates have to compete for. In exchange, candidates promise them the moon, the stars, and even a piece of the economy.

And now to lure them — and the voters — candidates are tapping political professionals. The irony is that takes a lot of money as well. Nimmo notes, "The professionals are for hire, but at very high prices. Fewer and fewer politicians can afford the costs of candidacy…. In an age when less affluent members of society are already disillusioned with a political arrangement which they perceive are shutting them out, it will hardly produce harmony to request that they play by the rules of an electoral game they cannot afford to enter."