The lame presidential town hall debate

While writing this column, I was watching the Pilipinas 2016 Presidential Town Hall Debate sponsored by ABS-CBN where the five Presidential candidates from Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, Manuel “Mar” Roxas, Sen. Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Duterte were in attendance at the Phinma University of Pangasinan. I guess this was the last of the debates from our presidentiables.

The first question was “What to do with the West Philippine Sea?” Miriam Santiago wanted the Coast Guard to bomb the Chinese Navy, while Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said that he himself would ride a Navy boat and from there, take a small boat with the Philippine Flag and plant it in one of the islands in the Spratly’s to tell the Chinese that it belongs to the Philippines. As he said, “It’s one of my dreams to be a hero… I don’t care if they kill me or not.” The other Presidentiables gave only motherhood statements to help the poor fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.

The second question is “What to do with the worsening traffic?” Sen. Santiago said to improve our mass transit… and discipline for drivers. Sen. Grace Poe talked about the traffic problems of Metro Manila. She wants to look at a subway system and improved biding of infrastructure projects. She also pointed out that Metro Cebu and Cagayan de Oro should have a Metro Rail system. Mar Roxas only looked at the problems or Metro Manila and did not mention the worsening traffic problems outside of Metro Manila.

Of course it must be said that the problems of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) happened under his watch… and most people who suffered in bad traffic know that the MRT’s woes only happened under the Aquino regime of which Mar Roxas was DOTC Secretary.

VP Binay will appoint a competent DOTC person to solve the traffic problems. He would break the DOTC into Department of Transportation and another Department of Communications. Mayor Duterte said that he would copy what Sen. Miriam Santiago planned to do. This was the first time that Mayor Duterte said that the traffic problem might take longer than a year to resolve and not the three or six months he gave himself to solve criminality. Perhaps he now realizes that our nation’s problems cannot be solved in just a few months.

The third question was about permanent jobs or job security. Carlo Miguel Francisco who only finished third year college asked, “What will you do with contractualization of workers?” Mayor Duterte promised to end contractualization… “This has to stop!” With contractualization, our workers cannot attain the three year experience required by other countries. This is an injustice in our system.

Sen. Grace Poe also pointed out that she would not allow contractualization of jobs. Mar Roxas pointed out that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has many loopholes in our laws. Promises more incentives to the eco-zones so there will be more jobs available for our people. VP Binay… promises that contractualization or “job only” will not be allowed under his watch. Sen. Miriam Santiago promises more jobs through more infrastructure projects, which brings more jobs. Obviously she didn’t answer the issue of contractualization. But later she corrected herself and said that she was against it.

Sen. Grace Poe said that to the companies that end contractualization, she would bring down the corporate income tax. VP Binay said that he would remove the income tax on small employees. But this was refuted by Mar Roxas because he passed a law where employees earning P100,000 per annum do not pay taxes.

As I don’t have enough space to write on the entire Town Hall Debate we will feature this last issue on the question “What to do with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who return to the Philippines? Sen. Poe said that she would give them PhilHealth cards that can be used in foreign countries where they are working. Mar Roxas wants to teach returning OFWs or New Heroes to learn new skills. VP Binay will come up with a road map to help returning OFWs resettle back here at home.

Mayor Duterte will fund OFWs returning home including seamen. He would create a Bank for OFWs and give them free legal aid. Mandate all embassies to keep track of OFWs. Sen. Poe talked about the need to help our seamen… and that they do not need to pay terminal fees.

I’m sorry if I have to end it here as we have a very limited space. But at least for this final Presidential debate, we didn’t get to hear the presidentiables throw mud at each other like what happened in the previous debates. ABS-CBN was able to marshal this debate to concentrate on major issues like the economy, the worsening traffic and the issue of contractualization.

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