‘Presidential debates crazy, useless, stupid idea’

DAVAO , Philippines — President Duterte considers the sponsored presidential debates during the campaign period crazy, useless and stupid.

The President lamented the extreme lack of time for candidates to present their platform or for the audience to get a glimpse of a candidate’s program of government should he win the election. 

“And I’d like to criticize these sponsored presidential debates. It is ridiculous. If you sponsor a forum and you line up the candidates on the stage (and) just give them about two minutes, then you have this maybe a rebuttal stage of about one minute and a half, it’s a crazy exercise,” Duterte said during the inauguration of the Northern Mindanao Wellness and Reintegration Center in Malaybalay, Bukidnon the other day. 

He said he might possibly do away with it in the next presidential elections. 

Duterte’s statement was based on his experience during the May 2016 elections, wherein he was not satisfied with how the presidential debates were carried out.

“During the presidential debates, I was always the first to finish because I realized that a minute and a half could not give you anything, not even the space,” he added.

He said presidential debates that are usually sponsored by different entities, including the media, are always in a hurry so candidates could not expound properly what they want to say.

“Since the candidate is in a hurry, he could not think of anything to say and ended up saying nothing at all. Even in laying the predicate, the foundation of your statement,” he said.

Duterte said he considers the presidential debates as a form of fooling the people, the electorate. 

“So in the next election, I would maybe just… tell me… it’s really business… and fooling the people. You get nothing except they would see you on TV, trying hard to speak in English or be an orator but you won’t have the time,” he said.

Duterte said the presidential debates would not really connect the candidates to the people. 

“It’s a useless exercise actually. It’s a stupid idea. But since you are a candidate, I obliged.”

Since he had been trained as a prosecutor before he became mayor of Davao City, Duterte said he has plenty of experience in such a communication platform.