WHICH can win more votes – the “experiential museum” on Marcosian martial rule of the 1980s or the “right here, right now” experience of life under the Aquino administration?

The multimedia museum that was opened last Thursday on one side of EDSA at Camp Aguinaldo strikes us as a negative campaign against Sen. Bongbong Marcos who is running for vice president under the Nacionalista Party.

The museum tries to rake raw again the wounds of victims of martial rule, especially among young voters who are being told that Bongbong should be held accountable for the “sins” of his father.

It would be interesting to find out if that edited recollection of selected aspects of martial rule has any impact on voters coming one generation after the elder Marcos and who are more familiar with the reality of present-day life under Aquino.

Can the exhibit recall enough of Marcosian “evils” to balance or neutralize the negative views that voters in Metro Manila and other urban centers may have on President Noynoy Aquino and his cronies?

The museum opens another front, forcing a comparison between the distant “then” and the very real “now” – and also between Aquino’s anointed candidate and the junior Marcos.

As this is Philippine politics, some quarters are already asking if the spending of millions for the “experiential museum” is legal use of public funds for election campaigning.

Note that even the attendant publicity of the boxing bout in April between Manny Pacquiao, a candidate for senator, and Timothy Bradley is being questioned as prohibited political advertising that could mean his disqualification.

■ Why is LP focusing fire on Bongbong?

THERE IS a hint of resignation and desperation in the diversion to Bongbong Marcos of the firepower of the Malacañang-LP machine.

It seems that LP standard bearer Mar Roxas, who languishes in fourth place in the surveys, has been virtually given up as not worthy of wasting firepower for. Administration tirades are being trained instead on Marcos who is not Roxas’ rival.

Marcos’ opposite number on the LP slate is Rep. Leni Robredo. Is the administration thinking that if it cannot save Roxas’ candidacy, it should win at least the vice presidency for the congresswoman from Camarines Sur?

Abakada (Education) party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz, decried the LP’s negative campaign, saying that “what the country needs now more than ever is for our people to unite and work together for the national interest.”

He said: “Thirty years after EDSA, ever-rising poverty is the fate of majority of our people, criminality and illegal drugs stalk the land, sustainable employment remains a dream for many, basic services are wanting in many areas, and our main infrastructure works from power to railways to ports and airports are creaking.

“It is unfortunate that in the face of these challenges, some groups chose to focus on the candidacy of senator Marcos. They have chosen to do the battles of the past which, by the way, the Marcoses have left to the processes under the Constitution and the judgment of history.”

■ Dismissed NPO officials explain case

REPORTS came out recently that six “dismissed” National Printing Office officials led by Director Emmanuel C. Andaya had assigned themselves the task of overseeing the printing of the ballots for the May 9 elections.

The story implied that the government has plans (denied) to subvert the elections by making sure that its trusted lieutenants are in place where the handling of ballots is concerned. The officials reportedly “assigned” the task to themselves through an executive committee, but it was not clear how they supposedly planned to rig the printing.

Andaya and his companions — chief administrative officer Sylvia Banda, supervising administrative officer Bernadette Lagumen, printing operations asst. chief Ma. Zita Gracia Enriquez, printing operations chief Josefina Samson, and printing operations chief Antonio Sillona – said that their suspension was at the behest of a businessman who owns a printing company that had previously been a top supplier of the NPO, but blacklisted.

They identified him as Guillermo Sylianteng Jr., who they said is the president and general manager of Ready Forms Inc. (RFI). They said that for 12 years, from 1996 to 2008, his company was the biggest supplier of the NPO, cornering no less than 25 percent of printing contracts farmed out to the private sector.

While the NPO has its own printing equipment and machinery, it is not always capable of delivering bulk orders. In such cases, the NPO was allowed by law until 2011 to farm out printing jobs to outside printers.

In 2009, Sylianteng’s company was reportedly blacklisted for five years after it was discovered to have been submitting falsified financial statements.

The dismissed NPO officials theorized that the case against them is part of an “orchestrated attempt to harass and remove officials deemed responsible for the blacklisting of RFI.” They added that if NPO is closed as a result of the businessman’s attacks, his company would benefit from the windfall of printing jobs.

Sylianteng has filed no less than 60 cases against past and present NPO officials, the bulk of which have been thrown out for being frivolous and lacking legal basis. But he continues to file cases.

The dismissed NPO officials have appealed to the Court of Appeals their dismissal by the Office of the Ombudsman. Their separation benefits had been withheld despite their meritorious length of service, and they now have to spend for their own legal expenses defending themselves.