Debates can guide us voters

More than a week after the second presidential debate held in Cebu, many people still ask me whom I think among the four candidates was the “best performer” in that three-hour gab contest. The description though of “best performer” in the debate sounded like picking who among the four presidential aspirants delivered an award-winning performance as an actor or actress.

Each of the aspirants displayed during the debate the presidential character that he or she would bring in to lead our country. Thus, we had a glimpse of the kind of leadership we will see from each one of the four presidential wannabes. We got to know a sampling of the character of the next president under extreme stressful situation like these public debates.

Unfortunately, we did not have the participation of known debate firebrand like Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who had to beg off due to ongoing trial of clinical treatment for her cancer. After about one-and-a-half hours of delay before the actual telecast, all four candidates participated in the debate held at the auditorium of the University of the Philippines – Cebu in Lahug City.

Whoever emerges winner in the May 9 presidential elections, we now have an idea of the kind of leader elected by the majority based on how he or she conducted his or her self during these debates organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

For the next six years after June 30 when outgoing President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III steps down from office, we got to vet his successor through this public debate. Thanks to the initiatives of Comelec chairman Andres Bautista who revived the idea of holding presidential debates during the campaign period.

Despite the many election-related problems and hitches that bedeviled the Comelec, Bautista personally took charge and supervised the conduct of the first two presidential debates with lead media entities and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng Pilipinas (KBP). The just concluded Visayas leg of the presidential debate was conducted by TV5-The Philippine STAR-BusinessWorld-Freeman.

As originally planned, the Cebu debate was moderated by TV5 news department head Luchie Valdes. Valdes sadly did not check the debate rules before she approved the request of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay to bring in documents. Hence, this caused the pre-debate shouting match backstage between the camps of UNA and the Liberal Party (LP) presidential standard-bearer, ex-Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II.

Davao city Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe casually sauntered to the debate stage and left the two feuding camps at backstage. The audience inside the auditorium broke into wild applause with the appearance on stage of the two pre-polls front-running rivals walking together with Poe’s right arm clinging to the left arm of Duterte.

Poe tried to cajole Duterte to share with the audience the latter’s story he told to her about a recent experience at the “airport.” Tart-tongued Duterte riposted and pointed to the direction of Roxas who later joined them onstage: “Huwag na lang, baka magalit yang buang nasa tabi mo.” (Not anymore, the fool beside you might get angry.) Either Roxas did not hear it, or pretended not to hear the wisecrack of Duterte.

A few more minutes, Binay came out lugging in his arms envelopes of documents. The backstage debates over the rules of bringing in documents resumed onstage. While Poe and Duterte were willing to waive the rules, Roxas stood adamant to stick to them.

Despite the final declaration by the Comelec chairman that no documents will be allowed, Binay still tried to bring in to the debate two of his documents, namely, a copy of the oath of US citizenship that Poe took before; and, his signed waiver to allow the Anti-Money Laundering Council to look at all his legitimate bank accounts.

Rummaging through the documents in hand, Binay could not even find his signed waiver after Duterte told him he would sign it too. Perhaps now, the camp of Binay should realize it is really useless to bring in documents during the debate because it would cut into the limited time of two-minutes given to each to talk and 30 seconds to rebut.

Being part of that presidential debate – mostly off camera as representative of The STAR to the Comelec-led preparations – we were all repeatedly told about the “no kodigo” rules precisely given the time limits. So I still could not fathom why TV5 representatives to these Comelec meetings did not get to tell this to Valdes.

As it unfolded, it was a free-for-all debate where all four presidential bets mixed it up and cut in to each other’s time limit. Many times during the debate, all four bets talked at the same time. At one point, Poe told the moderator who tried to break it up: “This is what you wanted.”

The most favorite line during the debate was the one invoked many times over by Roxas: “Oras ko ito.” (Or, roughly translated: This is my time). At one point, Duterte quipped: “Nagtitinda ka ba ng relo?” (Are you selling watches?)

The commercial breaks, with political ads in between, this time around provided welcome relief to the high-intense debate.

The next presidential debate, jointly undertaken by ABS-CBN with The Manila Bulletin, will be held on April 24 at the University of San Carlos in Pangasinan, a vote-rich province in Luzon. The Comelec pre-selected the topics to include, namely, traffic and public transportation, electoral and political reforms, tax reforms and national defense. The assigned format for this third and last presidential debate is a town hall meeting.

A Bilang Pilipino-Social Weather Stations mobile survey, commissioned by TV5 and conducted a day after the Cebu debate, asked respondents: “Who came out the best during the presidential debate last March 20, 2016?” The question was rather vague. It could mean either “best” prepared, or “best” qualified. Nonetheless, 39 percent of respondents who watched the debate chose Poe. Duterte came in second with 31 percent; followed by Roxas with 17 percent, while Binay got only eight percent.

Surveys cannot be taken as gauge of who could be the “best performer” for the presidency. Neither, can the debates tell us who would best lead the country for the next six years. But both ways at best can help guide us.