Two days into the official campaign, the camps of two leading presidential candidates for the May 10, 2010 elections are both crying foul over alleged black propaganda against their respective bets that have been hitting the headlines.

The spokesman of the Nacionalista Party denounced a smear campaign against presidential candidate Senator Manuel ”Manny” Villar, saying it was only meant to destroy his good name.

Former Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla, who is also an NP senatorial candidate, said text messages bearing negative remarks on Villar have hit the headlines of newspapers and broadcast networks.

He also criticized the camp of Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Nonoy” Aquino III for stating in earlier interviews that Villar is the secret candidate of President Arroyo and that they (LP) are the genuine opposition leading the fight against the administration.

“We denounce all the black propaganda leveled against Senator Villar including the text brigade (messages) na umabot na sa headlines ng news (outfits) which reportedly states the supposed closeness of the senator (Villar) to Mrs. Arroyo,” Remulla said.

“If there is anybody close to GMA it will be the camp of (Senator) Aquino. After all that has transpired they will have the gall to say na sila ang independent? Sobrang pagsisinungaling na iyan,” he added.

Speaking at the Fernandina news forum at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City, Remulla said he finds it odd that the Aquino camp is saying they are leading the fight against corruption in the present administration when it was the LP, after joining forces with the administration, that kicked out Villar as Senate President.

He said that after Villar's exit, various probes and investigations against Mrs. Arroyo and First Gentlemen Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo for alleged corruption also stopped.

Remulla said the NP led the investigations on various scandals in the Arroyo administration including the “Hello Garci” controversy in 2005 and the jueteng scandal a few years back.

The dirty tricks practitioners have also been targeting not only candidates but media people through the internet and text messages.

Reporters covering Villar were surprised to see an internet media advisory notifying them that there was an NPC press conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the NP Mandaluyong headquarters.

Reporters were at the Dusit Hotel in Makati covering Villar who spoke before the Makati Business Club at that time.

The supposed agenda of the “press conference’’ was Villar’s campaign expenses and his “public statements on his marital status with his wife, (Las Piñas Rep.) Cynthia, and the real score between him and his running mate (Senator) Loren Legarda.’’

The advisory went on to state that media members should see Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano, one of the NP spokesmen, before leaving the press conference for their envelopes that supposedly contained the media people’s allowances ranging from P1,000 to P3,000.

Broadsheet, radio, tabloid and TV reporters and their crew have been given specific assignments to cover the nine presidential candidates during the current political campaign that formally started Tuesday.

The text messages are cruel.

One such text message said comedy king Dolphy accepted P30 million for endorsing the candidacy of Villar. Earlier text messages also denigrated Dolphy’s family.

“That accusation is baseless and a big insult to Dolphy,” said lawyer Adel Tamano, one of the NP senatorial candidates.

‘’Let us not forget that the Comedy King is an institution, a legend, a man of conviction. He won’t put his name on the line if he doesn’t believe in the person. He believes and trusts Sen. Manny Villar,” Tamano added.

“Criticisms like these really come out during the campaign period. It only goes to show how desperate Senator Villar’s detractors are and the great lengths that they are willing to take just to destroy a person’s name and reputation.

“It’s sad, really. Why can’t we just consider track record?” Tamano said.

Meanwhile, the former appointment secretary and long time aide of President Corazon "Cory" Aquino called on the critics of Senator Aquino to stop picking on the late icon of democracy just to taint the credibility of her son.

Margarita "Margie" Juico aired her grievances during the launching of her book, "Cory: An Intimate Portrait II" at the Bestseller Bookstore at Robinson's Galleria last Monday.

Saying her book proves that "the good President Aquino has done was not interred with her bones", Juico said President Aquino does not deserve to be the target of dirty
propaganda against Senator Aquino.

"To people who portray President Cory as a person she was not, a dishonest leader she never was, I just hope these people realize that if they ran out of ammunition against her son, they should not pick on his mother who is not here to defend herself. That is the height of irreverence," she said.

Juico, who worked with President Aquino for at least 26 years, did not name names but was apparently referring to stalwarts of the NP who allegedly implicated the former President and her son to the alleged overpricing in the right-of-way acquisition for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

"They do not belong to her league. They cannot boast of the same lineage. They who will never know how it is to be a begotten child of two admirable icons of democracy should not cast (tirades) on them.

“The admiration and respect both here and abroad were hard earned after leading honest, courageous and simple life. It came with a heavy price and no billions can pay for that honor," she said.

Her husband Philip Juico, who served as Agrarian Reform Secretary during the Aquino administration, echoed her sentiments.

"We are amused at first but felt outraged later on because it has been unfair. We know President Cory very much and we know her as someone who cannot do what other people accuse her of," he said.