Presidential debates

Presidential and vice presidential debates are necessary to give voters an idea of whom they are voting for and the platforms and programs they espouse. More important, voters want answers to issues and to criticisms of the candidates.

With reports that Comelec will be sponsoring debates among the candidates it is important to know whether these would be worthwhile.

Debates are effective only if the moderator knows how to ask hard, even brutal questions if necessary and dares to ask these.

BayanKo adviser Jose Alejandrino, a pugnacious journalist himself and the former general manager of the Manila Chronicle, has suggested questions he thinks would be useful to voters.

He once interviewed US Ambassador Nicholas Platt that appeared in the Chronicle on July 4, 1991. It was a good example of how to ask hard questions. The full text of the Alejandrino interview with Ambassador Platt was published in his memoirs. It was an exceptionally frank exchange about US-Philippine relations and policy reforms needed by the Philippines.

Alejandrino suggests the following ground rules for moderators. The questions should be addressed to each candidate by alphabetical order starting with B for Binay, D for Duterte, M for Marcos, P for Poe, and R for Roxas.

Next the candidates should be asked to respond directly to the questions during the time allotted to them, avoiding generalizations and hiding behind legal niceties to wiggle out of answers.

Thirdly, each candidate should be asked two questions at the outset. After the last candidate has answered these, they should be asked three more questions common to all of them.

Fourthly, moderators should be allowed to interrupt candidates who are out of order or to clarify any point in their answers. What is needed, Alejandrino says, are moderators who can think fast on their feet.

Here are some questions he thinks should be asked to:

Vice President Jejomar Binay — Moderator: “Vice President Binay, one of the issues that concerns most Filipinos is the enormous corruption in government. There is the pork barrel, as former Senator Ping Lacson said, whose existence was confirmed by Sen. Serge Osmena, a member of the ruling party. There are the financial scams. You yourself have been recommended be charged with plunder by a Senate committee report. Your daughter Nancy was quoted as saying your family does not have billions, as claimed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, but only P643 million in your bank accounts, the result of 25 years of hard work.

My first question is this: if you are not guilty of plunder as you claim, why not open your bank accounts to the public to show how much money you have and why not explain how you accumulated that money during 25 years?”

Moderator: “My second question is this: During 5 years you formed part of the Cabinet of President Aquino. You applauded Matuwid na Daan. Now you claim there were anomalies. Why did you not expose them when you were in the Cabinet? Why did you keep quiet?”

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte — Moderator: “Mayor Duterte, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima said the NBI is investigating you for human rights violations and claims you were an accomplice to the work of Death Squads. How do you respond?”

Moderator: “My second question is this: You support a parliamentary federal system. You said you will make peace with dissident groups like the NPAs. How do you propose to go about it?”

Senator Bong-Bong Marcos -— Moderator: “Sen. Marcos, former PCGG chairman Andy Bautista said they recovered $4 billion of the total estimated amount the Marcoses plundered from the country. Now no Marcos has been jailed for plunder, but the fact that Swiss and Singaporean banks have returned to the Philippine government big amounts show there was plunder. US courts awarded a total of $2.35 billion to the nearly 10,000 human rights victims of the Marcos regime. My question is this: why don’t you return the balance of the money your family took out and why don’t you just compensate the human rights victims for the wrong done to them?”

Moderator: “My second question is this: you were quoted as saying political dynasties are normal. Do you mean political dynasties are the only ones capable of running this country?”

Senator Grace Poe — Moderator: “Sen. Poe, many have accused you of being inexperienced. Sen. Serge Osmeña suggested you take the VP slot under Mar Roxas than run for president in order to gain experience. Others claim being inexperienced shows in the way you rely on your friend Chiz Escudero who appears to be your chief adviser but whom others say is just an opportunist with connections to people with reputations that leave much to be desired. They worry your lack of experience will lead you down the same path as President Aquino relying on kaklase, kaibigan, kamag-anak. My question is this: how do you propose to broaden your experience and avoid the same pitfalls as President Aquino?”

Moderator: “My second question is this: if you decide to run independently for the presidency, what do you plan to do if you are disqualified by Comelec or the Supreme Court on ground of residency? Or for that matter, if you are cheated at the polls by the automated voting machine?”

Secretary Mar Roxas — Moderator: “Sec. Roxas, you have managed to maintain a clean image while in government. However, COA reported you have P1.1 billion of unliquidated cash advances. Then there are reports of overpriced firetrucks that could have been manufactured locally. Can you explain how this happened when you were at DILG?”

Moderator: “My second question is this: IT experts pointed to the flaws of the Smartmatic-PCOS automated voting system. Then there is the danger of hackers. A 15-year-old in the US was able to shut down the highly-secure NASA system for 21 days. The Federal Supreme Court of Germany decided to discard automation and return to a manual system because an automated system can be rigged. Comelec claims there is no time to switch to manual. But what if it results in a failed election? Which system do you prefer and why?” 

After these questions, three more questions will be asked of each candidate in alphabetical order.

Moderator: “As usual I will begin with Vice President Binay and end with Sec. Mar Roxas. Each candidate will answer the same question. The first question is this: do you favor revising the 1987 Constitution to switch to a parliamentary federal system of government? If not, why not?”

Moderator: “The second question is this: we have endless traffic jams in Metro Manila. One-half of our industries are located in the metropolis. These traffic jams have impacted on man-hours of productivity and can affect economic growth. How do you propose to solve the problem?”

Moderator: “The third question is this: how do you propose to settle our dispute with China over the Spratlys?”