As early campaigners for the 2025 mid-term election prematurely air their jingles on television, radio and social media platforms, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines is reminding candidates to respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of artists belonging to the music industry, as some candidates use their tracks without permission for their campaign jingles.

This comes following an incident on 5 October where members of the Kabataan Partylist — during their filing at the Commission on Elections satellite office at the Manila Hotel Tent — aired a parody song titled “Salarin, Salarin,” based on P-pop girl group BINI’s “Salamin, Salamin,” seemingly targeting politicians in the country.

While the campaign period starts next year, IPOPHL said it is making this early reminder for candidates to allow ample time to properly seek permission from artists before transforming their works into catchy campaign jingles, slogans, and merchandise items to build their political brand.

“Candidates’ respect for intellectual property (IP) rights is a litmus test of their integrity and trustworthiness as future public servants. I don’t think any voter would like to see any copyright owner and artist, especially their favorite artists, deprived of their right to have a say on the use of their work for a political campaign,” IPOPHL director general Rowel Barba said.

But in his weekly column at the DAILY TRIBUNE, Barba discussed Shaira Moro’s song “Selos,” which was flagged by Australia-based singer-songwriter Lenka for allegedly borrowing the melody from her song “Trouble is a Friend.”

“Many have called Moro’s song a parody. Thus, it must be considered fair use, which absolves the user of any infringement liability for using the work without the author’s permission. As a quasi-judicial body, IPOPHL may still handle this case if lodged in our office. As such, we have our hands tied in directly commenting on the issue’s merits. However, given the importance of advancing copyright awareness, I hope to shed light on parody from a legal and jurisprudential perspective,” Barba explained.

The IPOPHL chief said that based on Section 185 of the Intellectual Property Code of 1997, the use of copyrighted works for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including limited copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research is not an infringement of copyright. Parody then could fall as copyright for its critical bearing.

But for the case of those campaigners mimicking the copyrighted works of composers and singers, Barba said political candidates may face not only public backlash that could derail their chances for their vied positions but also a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Under Section 173 of Republic Act 8293 or the IP Code of 1997, a derivative work is defined as a new work that does not violate any subsisting copyright upon the original work employed or any part thereof.

Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights Director Emerson G. Cuyo encouraged political candidates and parties to contact IPOPHL-accredited collective management organizations to secure the right licenses for the transformation and public performance of works.