Political advertising spending in the run-up to the May 10, 2010 elections is on a record high.

Leading the top spenders is Nacionalista Party (NP) standardbearer Senator Manny Villar who has spent P150 million for ad placements in just one month after the campaign period started.

Following him are Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, the standardbearer of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP). Kile Villar, both are also spending money at unprecedented rate, a group of experts said during the Pera't Pulitika 2010 Consortium held Wednesday.

Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), said Aquino has spent P118 million while Estrada’s advertising is now P103.2 million.

“All three have just a little more ad time each left on their TV campaigns as it nearly approaches the required limit,” she said.

Administration bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Mangahas said, is a far fourth, spending only P330,680 on political ads as of March 8.

Based on the report of media monitoring agency Nielsen Media, Teodoro was even outspent by other presidential candidates Senator Richard Gordon and evangelist Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas movement with P69.7 million and P1.02 million tri-media ad cost, respectively.

Their total ad expenditures were exclusive of discounts based on the law that states any candidate will be given discounts of 30, 20, and 10 percent on TV, radio, and print ads placed during the 90-day official campaign period.

The same report showed that all of the presidential candidates bought airtime mostly from the top networks – ABS-CBN 2 and GMA 7 – which earned a total ad value of P397 million to place their political ads.

That early spending spree, however, raises questions about how much money the candidates still have, where they will put it down the line, and how they will find ways to skirt around provisions in the law on campaign ad finances.

Mangahas said there are also ads that entered into “curious contracts” with a political party even though “the content of the ad is actually for a particular candidate” or “a party-list group ads appear to endorse a presidential candidate.”

PCIJ cited Akap-Bata Party-list's “Dagat ng Basura” (Sea of Trash) ads on TV that is quite similar to that of the political ads of Villar.

“The most disturbing pattern is this kind of political culture that is being reinforced. It is the culture of corrupting institution, party-list groups, media, and the candidates themselves,” Prof. Grace Gorospe-Jamon, national president of the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines.

“This is not mere hearsay. There is an empirical evidence that the candidates violate themselves the campaign finance rules and take advantage of lack of clarity on the laws. It remains a challenge to the Comelec in relation to the kind of regulation they should do in election like this,” she added.