Philippine presidential candidate Villar's game show leaves audience divided

Manila: Senator Manuel ‘Manny' Villar, the presidential candidate of the Nationalista Party (NP), has been criticised for his unusual campaign strategy, but other observers said he has used his marketing skills to advance his claim for the top post.

Last January, Villar donated 25,000 pesos and 10,000 pesos (Dh1,991 and Dh796) worth of groceries for winners in a game show entitled, Put an End to Poverty (or Stop My Hirap in Tagalog-English), a segment of Eat Bulaga, a popular noon-time show aired by GMA 7, a major network.

TV hosts in orange, Villar's campaign colour, egged participants to write on orange coloured papers what they would do if they won 25,000 pesos or 10,000 pesos. Before picking a lucky contestant, the hosts led members of the audience to dance to a pro-Villar music that was composed by Michael V, a popular TV personality.

The candidate's symbolic check sign, shaped by a thumb and a forefinger, was flashed on screen after the audience stopped dancing.

Using an orange electronic wheel, the lucky contestant, whose orange paper was picked out by the TV hosts from a fish bowl, aimed for cash prizes, groceries, or a jackpot with bigger cash value.

After the game show, a document on Villar's ascendance from poverty was aired on TV.

Attraction

The Villar-sponsored game show, which began last January 19 and ended on February 6, before the formal campaign period of the May 10 polls, had attracted professionals, the middle class, overseas Filipino workers, and poor people as well.

Villar spent between 700,000 to one million pesos per episode of the noon-time TV show, sources claimed. The cost did not include the giveaway prizes for the winners and the talent fees of the hosts.

It was the first time that a game show was utilised for a political campaign, observers said, adding that Villar has only proven himself a "genius in sales".

In the past, political spots were aired as separate entities of a show, not as part of it.

Villar has also tapped Willie Revillame, host of ABS-CBN's "Wowowee," as a celebrity endorser.

If politicians were often criticised for paying for celebrity endorsers, Villar was doubly criticised with the way he has fused political advertisement with episodes that were bought from popular TV shows.

"The way he has been spending and maximising his campaign strategy has shown that only the rich could effectively run as president. He has shut off those who could not match his cash," said political analyst Alfred Crespo.

Villar has narrowed the lead of Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, the popular presidential candidate of the Liberal Party and the son of the late president Corazon Aquino.

Estimated to have a net worth of 25 billion peso, Forbes magazine has ranked Villar as one of the country's richest persons.