Vice President Noli de Castro and other cabinet members who have plans to run for public office in 2010 should stop producing and airing multi-million peso infomercials out of delicadeza, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Raul Gonzalez, chief presidential legal counsel, said although the cabinet members may not be violating any election laws, they should be decent enough to halt the infomercials to douse suspicions that they are using public funds to further their political ambitions.

The former justice secretary suggested that government agencies exhaust other options to promote their programs and projects without splattering the faces and names of Cabinet secretaries on television.

Apart from De Castro, other Cabinet members airing infomercials are Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Augusto Syjuco, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. chairman Efraim Genuino, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando, Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr.

The controversial infomercials “give rise to suspicions that they are riding on the issues” of their departments and “are reflected in their positions to advance themselves,” according to Gonzalez.

“That’s the ethical problem there. It’s more of an ethical problem,” Gonzales said in a phone interview. “I think that the clamor, public clamor is quite clear. They should stop.”

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde also asked the concerned Cabinet members “to take into serious account” the concerns of some people, including Senator Miriam Santiago, about the soundness of their infomercials.

Santiago earlier chided Cabinet members for spending P218 million for the infomercials to advertise themselves ahead of the 2010 national and local elections. The senator had called on Remonde to ask the cabinet men to discontinue the ads.

Gonzalez said the cabinet members could not be charged with premature campaigning since the campaign period has not started.

“We are not in the campaign period and they are not even candidates yet. They haven’t filed their certificates of candidacy,” he said.

He agreed, however, that the advertising spree must be investigated to determine whether or not public funds were misused.

“That’s something that should be looked into, if there was an abuse on their part and whether they used the purpose to advance themselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, DILG Assistant Secretary Raymund Yamsuan said no public funds were used in Puno’s infomercials, saying they were the initiative of a private sector-led group called Friends of Ronnie.

He said the group produced and aired the series of infomercials showing the programs of the DILG through the Philippine National Police in establishing Women and Children Protection Desks in every police station and in hiring at least 3,000 new policemen each year during the watch of Puno.

“We would like to assure the public that no funds of the Department were used for the infomercials,” Yamsuan said in a statement.

“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,” Yamsuan said.

“The Secretary had neither received the funds used to pay for the infomercials nor requested the private group to produce and air the ads,” he also pointed out.

Yamsuan said Puno was merely asked to appear in the infomercials because he is the head of the agency, adding that the Secretary 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.

He said the airing of the infomercials does not constitute a form of solicitation or acceptance of gifts “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.”