MANILA, Philippines -- Claims that the April 9 Manny Pacquiao-Timoth Bradley bout would violate the overseas absentee voting law would be stretching the definition of the law “to absurdity,” a veteran election lawyer said Sunday.
Romulo Macalintal said even if the match takes place on the same day overseas voting starts, “there would be no violation because it is as clear as the light that the fight is not a partisan political activity."
Pacquiao, who is currently representative of Sarangani, is running for senator.
Macalintal’s position disputed that of former Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., himself an election lawyer, who said staging the fight in Las Vegas on the day overseas absentee voting starts might be against the law.
Brillantes earlier said the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2013 prohibits any person from engaging in "partisan political activity abroad during the 30-day overseas voting period," and that "personal campaigning, the use of campaign materials, as well as the limits on campaign spending shall be governed by laws and regulations applicable in the Philippines."
Earlier, another senatorial candidate, former Akbayan representative Walden Bello, also filed a complaint against Pacquiao saying the publicity provided the match with Bradly violated the television airtime limit for campaigning.
But Macalintal said: "We are stretching too far the definition of 'partisan political activity' or personal campaigning if an international fight like the Pacquiao-Bradley fight would be treated as campaigning for an elective post.”
Macalintal did not dispute Brillantes’ definition of the law but said: "To say that an international boxing event staged abroad where, like Manny Pacquiao, one is a candidate in the Philippines, is a form of ‘personal campaigning’ is to stretch its definition to the point of absurdity if not an overbreadth interpretation of the law."
He also said prohibiting promotions of the fight and even the fight itself, as some quarters have called for, would also violate the rights of Bradley and the fight’s foreign promoters.
"To say that the promotion of the fight and the fight itself should be prohibited just because Pacquiao is a candidate in the Philippines is to trample upon the rights of Bradley and the foreign promoters of the fight," he said. "In other words, it is not only Pacquiao who will participate in this event but a lot of stakeholders would take part in this historical boxing event which might mark the retirement of Pacquiao who is undoubtedly one of the world’s best fighters of the decade."
He also dismissed the argument that media coverage of the bout would give Pacquiao any undue advantage, saying “Brillantes and those similarly minded are merely speculating” by raising the issue and argued that “such media coverage is not within the control of Pacquiao but an exercise of media’s duties and obligations to the public to report events of national significance or newsworthy events and views of public interest, which is allowed under Section 86 of the Omnibus Election Code."
And, he added, any attempt to ban the airing of the match or reporting on it would violate the media’s constitutional rights to freedom of information and of expression.
He also warned that prohibiting the airing of the ongoing developments of the boxing match itself, the Philippines is violating and denying media entities' constitutional right to freedom of information and expression.
Macalintal cited Comelec Resolution No. 10049 dated February 1, which provides that the appearance of candidates in any broadcast, if “incidental to the presentation of the subject or subjects covered by the news documentary, or on-the-spot coverage of bonafide news events shall not be deemed broadcast election propaganda.”
"Surely, the on-the-spot coverage of the training of Pacquiao, as well as his aforesaid fight with Bradley, is lawfully justified and cannot be considered as election propaganda because of its having news worthy value as it relates to an event of national and international significance of which the entire public is greatly interested," he said.
"What is promoted is the Pacquiao-Bradley fight along with the undercard bouts featured therein and Pacquiao’s appearance therein is merely incidental to the coverage of such international worthy news event," he added.
