THE IMPLACABLE, ever-skeptical vice president wannabe William Bello couldn’t hide his displeasure at the cancellation of the COMELEC-sponsored public debates for all presidential and vice presidential candidates. He was obviously downbeat when he talked about the defeat of liberal democracy in a democratic election as public debates were shot down.
At a time when the political mood appeared to have changed, at least favorably for Vice President Leni Robredo, whose survey rating had gained almost 10 percentage points, Bellow smelled something fishy over the poll body’s decision to scuttle the public debates. The timing was bad because it deflated the rising public enthusiasm, a growing trend for real- time, no-holding-of-punches back-and-forth among the moist eyed for the 2022 elections.
Politics is supposed to be a contact sport. So the public debate cancellation by the COMELEC, which caught everyone by surprise, was anticlimactic. With the political race approaching the finish line, the debates would have provided more excitement – and entertainment – if they were held as scheduled.
Can you imagine if the debates were not cancelled? Isko Moreno would have to tell Robredo in her face why he called her the godmother of all bullies. Or why Norberto Gonzales had to apologize to the vice president after that Easter Sunday circus where at least three presidentiables verbally gang up on Robredo.
“Discourse and critical thinking are essential tools to secure progress in a democratic society,” according to a political writer. Sen. Ping Lacson and Senate President Tito Sotto bank on thinking voters for their success in the forthcoming elections. They should view the cancelled debates as a big setback to that end.
And Bello is not alone in thinking there was no substantive ground to scrap the political event on account of alleged non-payment of a sponsor to COMELEC’s partner, Impact Hub, which helped organized the activity. Borrowing Bello’s exact words: it was hogwash.
The amount involved is peanuts, said Bello: P14 million. Why, with billions for its operating budget, the COMELEC could have easily financed the debates on its own and provided much-needed timely information, enlightenment, if you will, to the Filipino voters.timely
Bello is convinced that the cancellation played right into the game of the Bongbong-Sara team which has refused to join the debates for alleged conflict in schedules. Now, the new format of longer one-on-one interviews may just do the trick of luring the two frontrunners to participate in what is seen as a no-hostile, no contact engagement. So whose interest is COMELEC serving? A no-brainer.
Sure, the BBM-Sara tandem continues to lead the race by a big chunk, even if it has skipped the debates, making it appear like it was a perfect political strategy. But surveys can be tricky, Bellow warned, citing a presidential election in the United States in recent years where Hillary Clinton was ahead in the surveys but eventually lost to Donald Trump.
The political situation in the Philippines vis-à-vis, at least the presidential contest between BBM and Robredo is fluid, and surveys could lull the political combatants into complacency, to which BBM has warned his supporters against. Bello must have been impressed by Robredo’s huge rallies recently. Bello’s talent,of course, isn’t statistical but political sarcasm. At one point in his CNN interview, he described one COMELEC official of having the diplomacy of an attack dog. That official was a symbolic representation, if not the embodiment, of the tail that wag the dog to explain away the cancellation brouhaha. Or too much ado about nothing as Bello summed it up.
Bello thinks the interviews will just be an ennui, boring — lucky if there would more than 50 people to watch them. They will not draw viewers but discouraged them. In a sense, it would be a double whammy for the election in terms of educating the voters, which was COMELEC’s purported wisdom.
Of course, Bello is realistic enough he knows that even if the public debates were pursued, his chances of winning the vice presidential race are nil. At least, he said, the public would have learned more about the candidates and their platforms that could help them choose wisely on May 9. That opportunity may have been lost by the debates cancellation. The outcome may not be exactly like throwing the bathtub along with the baby, but the analogy is not a wild stretch either.
So, how fit and competent is COMELEC to handle a bigger project like overseeing the 2022 elections involving more than 65 million people? Bellow is not impressed. The public debates are small stuff but the poll body has blown it with some flimsy excuse about financial shortfall. It’s suspect, if not a foregone conclusion. Bellow is still holding his punches.
With the public debates out for good, the opposition, meaning Robredo and company, apart from the presidential political gnat Leony de Guzman who has been as anti-BBM as Robredo, both whom have connected courage to spontaneity, will have to be more creative in driving and getting their message across.
“If you agree with me on nine out of twelve issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on twelve out of twelve issues, see a psychiatrist”, Edward Koch said while running for mayor of New York in 1989.
Alas and alack, the debates would have made a difference, indeed.
