The campaign jingle is a crucial element of the election season — a powerful tool for politicians to connect with their audiences. With election campaigning now in full swing, candidates are racing to create the most compelling jingles to win over the public — an endeavor that sometimes leads to consequences.
On February 11, Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy — a senatorial aspirant who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and is currently detained in Pasay City Jail for child sex trafficking — allegedly used rapper Omar Baliw’s song “K&B” at his campaign kickoff party without permission. Baliw addressed the issue on Facebook, stating, “Di pa nakaupo, nagnakaw na agad. [W]ala kaming kinalaman dito.”
This is not the first incident of an election candidate violating music copyright for campaign jingles. According to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (FILSCAP), only two out of thousands of candidates in the 2019 midterm elections secured public performance licenses for copyrighted music — namely, former presidential aide Bong Go, and Pasay City mayoralty candidate Jon Wilfredo Trinidad.
In the same year, then-re-electionist senator Bong Revilla faced backlash for using a track by budots producer DJ Love. Budots is a dance music genre with origins in low-income communities in Davao City, and in the documentary Budots: The Craze, DJ Love — a Davao local — detailed how his track was used by Revilla’s camp without permission or royalties.
In 2023, another copyright controversy emerged when Renato “Ali” DeLacruz Recto of Barangay Maguyam, Cavite, and Jerry Roxas of Rosario, Cavite — both running for Deputy in their respective towns — used O $ide Mafia’s hit song “Go Getta” in their campaigns. To skirt copyright issues, they commissioned a vocalist to rewrite Mafia’s lyrics.
FILSCAP has repeatedly reminded political aspirants to secure licenses from artists before using their songs. In the heat of this year’s campaigning, addressing these concerns will be a small but crucial detail for Filipino artists who are looking for better protections in the cultural and creative industries.
