DILG Did Not Spend for Infomercials

August 24, 2009

The government did not spend a single centavo for the production and airing of the infomercials highlighting the accomplishments of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, DILG assistant secretary Brian Raymund Yamsuan said yesterday.

Yamsuan, who is also DILG spokesman, disclosed that it was the initiative of the  private sector-led group Friends of Ronnie (FOR) to produce and air the series of infomercials showing the programs of the DILG, through the Philippine National Police (PNP), in establishing Women and Children Protection Desks (WCPDs) in every police station and hiring at least 3,000 new policemen each year on the watch of Secretary Ronnie Puno.
 
“We would like to assure the public that no funds of the Department were used for the infomercials,” Yamsuan said. “FOR had publicly stated that its members had taken it upon themselves to support the advocacy of Secretary Puno in empowering local government units and developing a new breed of law enforcers and public safety officers in the DILG and we thank them for that.”
 
“The Secretary had neither received the funds used to pay for the infomercials nor requested the private group to produce and air the ads,” Yamsuan said. “As had been pointed out by FOR members in their press statement and during the group’s Aug.. 7 launching, they themselves produced and aired the infomercials and merely asked the Secretary to appear in these as DILG secretary.”
 
Secretary Puno, Yamsuan said, was asked to appear in these infomercials considering that he is the head of the agency where these programs are now being vigorously implemented..
 
He said, moreover, that Secretary Puno cannot be held liable for violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act 3019,  or for disregarding the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials, which prohibits public officials from accepting gifts, because the infomercials cannot be considered as gifts given by FOR to the DILG secretary.
 
The airing of these infomercials by FOR does not constitute a form of solicitation or acceptance of gifts as stated in the Code of Conduct and Ethica Standads for Public Officials and Employees, he said,  “because the ads benefitted the DILG, and not Puno, considering that the programs and achievements of the Department are the ones being shown in the infomercials.”
 
In fact, he said, the rank-and-file of the PNP are the ones benefitting from the infomercial because of the strong positive image of policemen and policewomen that are being projected in the ads.
 
Even the public are benefitting from the ads because they are, through the infomercials, being made aware of the PNP services that they now enjoy or can avail of, he added. 
 
He said Secretary Puno is also not guilty of premature campaigning  because under the Supreme Court ruling in  Lanot vs Comelec,  a person who has not yet filed his or her certificate of candidacy cannot yet be considered a candidate.
 
Earlier, members of the recently formed “Friends of Ronnie” Group, whose primary aim is to  “increase public awareness of the accomplishments of the DILG under Secretary Ronnie Puno,” said that the private-sector component of FOR had paid for the infomercials now airing on television.
 
In its Aug. 7 news release, FOR pledged to rally behind Puno’s advocacies of empowering local government units and establishing a new breed of law enforcers and public safety officers in the DILG.
 
FOR was formed, initially as a loose group of supporters of Puno’s DILG advocacies, by his lawyer-brothers—Regis and Eric Puno—and by businessman Eric Tagle. The group was formally launched on Aug. 7  at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City.
 
It said in the Aug. 7 statement that among those present during FOR’s launching were Donald Dee, chairman emeritus of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI); Sergio Ortiz-Luis of the Philippine Exporters Federation (Philexport); Francis Chua and Rene Simbulan of PCCI; Miguel Varela of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines; and Alfonso Uy of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII).