Better to campaign than debate – BBM

MANILA, Philippines — As all other presidential candidates face off in the Commission on Elections debates tonight, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. opted to campaign and meet his supporters in Marikina City and Rizal province.

He stood firm in his decision not to join the debate, saying he would rather meet voters and convince them to vote for him instead of arguing with fellow candidates on issues that he said are repetitive and could even get personal.

“If there are so many debates and the questions are repetitive, we’re not getting anywhere anymore. And if it’s going to be that way, it gets personal,” he said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum Wednesday.“If there is a way that the debate will actually be productive, constructive, that we can talk about policy, we can argue, we can debate then fine, I would go. But if we’re going to repeat and repeat and repeat the same thing, I’d rather campaign.”

Earlier this week, Marcos said he prefers the “old school” or traditional way of campaigning where he meets voters face-to-face.

“Campaign is more important to me. I’m old school. I want to personally tell the people why they should vote for me,” he said in Filipino.

He noted that there used to be only one debate for candidates – the one organized by Comelec, “but now, there are many debates already and the questions and discussions are repetitive.”

His spokesman Vic Rodriguez said earlier this week that Marcos would not attend the Comelec debate today because of a prior commitment.

Rodriguez said their camp would “continue with our preferred mode of direct communication with the people and engage them in a more personal face-to-face interaction that discusses real issues that affect them today, tomorrow and in the days to come.”

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez has warned that candidates who will not participate in their debate would be barred from using the poll body’s e-rally platform.

But the camp of Marcos questioned whether such pronouncement was based on a policy approved by the commission’s en banc.

Meanwhile, Marcos’ camp yesterday welcomed the latest results of a preferential survey conducted by the research firm Publicus Asia Inc. for the May 9 presidential election.?

Rodriguez said this latest survey result where Marcos received a voters’ preference rating of 55 percent or more than a majority of voters with less than two months left before the election “is very humbling and inspires us to work even harder.”

“The consistent upward trajectory of Bongbong Marcos is a remarkable proof that an overwhelming number of Filipinos have embraced his message of unity, the call to look into the future, work towards nation building and meet the collective aspirations of our people and once again occupy our rightful place as Filipinos in the community of nations,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

The Pahayag Tracker 2 was conducted from March 9 to 14 with a nationwide sampling that was participated by 1,500 respondents who were randomly drawn from a market research panel by the Singapore office of PureSpectrum, a company based in the United States, according to Publicus.

Marcos’ running mate Sara Duterte also topped the vice presidential survey with 56.5 percent in voter preference, also above the majority threshold of 50 percent.

“Her latest figure is in line with her polling numbers in the previous two surveys of Publicus. It can be inferred that she is hovering around the 55 percent mark,” the firm said. – Ric Sapnu, Ralph Edwin Villanueva