WHAT was billed as a debate among the candidates in the May presidential elections turned out to be a race against the clock for each speaker and an occasional exchange of light jabs.
It wasn’t really much of a “debate” as typified by the war of innuendos and insults in the US between the Republican presidential wannabes, as well as the cogent explanation of plans and policies that have marked the exchanges between Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Given the 90-second time limit set for each candidate to respond to a question from the moderators, the 30-second limit set for what was supposed to be a rebuttal from a rival candidate and another 30 seconds for a counter-rebuttal, there was very little by way of depth that could have been expected from the first Philippine presidential debate.
Indeed, there was more meat in the 30-second spots that some of the candidates managed to air within the two-hour session, 48 minutes of which were allotted to commercials.
Perhaps due to her show business upbringing, Senator Grace Poe had obviously spent a lot of time preparing and memorizing her responses to the predictable topics. She delivered her lines well and one could concede that she did a good job of acting presidential.
Of course, between acting and knowing what to do in a real-life presidential environment, there can be a humongous gap.
I’m reminded of the inaugural speech of President Noynoy Aquino which a delegation of Filipinos from the US (of which I was a part) had the privilege of listening to, up close (we had special seats in front of the Luneta grandstand). Aquino also delivered his lines well and some of them were quite memorable – things like “Wala nang wang-wang.” (No more sirens, meaning no more special treatment).
Unfortunately, between that impressive speech and his actual performance as leader of the country, there has been a wide and disappointing gap. This prompted the late Senator Joker Arroyo to describe the Aquino presidency as OJT or on-the-job training and to compare it to a college student council.
This was also obviously what LP standard bearer Mar Roxas meant when he patronizingly reminded Poe that the presidency is not meant for OJT.
In the next breath, Roxas then rattled off his credentials as a public official, trying hard to impress his rivals and the audience with them. Too bad, Poe’s 30-second rebuttal was rather tentative and not forceful enough. She could have shot back, “With all of that experience, why haven’t you learned to do your job well?”
She did try to point that out but her statement was diluted by an effort to sound civil. Referring to the problems in the DILG and DOTC, Poe quipped, ‘I don’t need extensive experience to understand our transportation problems.’
That, of course, was a mouthful. True, Poe doesn’t need any experience to know that there is a transportation problem in Metro Manila but it will take more than memorizing a prepared spiel to get at the root of the mess and untangle it.
In that exchange between Roxas and Poe, Vice-President Jejomar Binay could have butted in with, “Bakit hanggang ngayon, palpak ka pa rin?” (Why are you still incompetent up to now?).
But the format of the debate did not allow that kind of verbal cross-fire. According to the papers, Binay did subsequently take a direct dig at Roxas in a campaign stop in Iligan City, the day after the debate. He reportedly described Roxas as “Secretary Palpak.” He should have said that line during the debate.
Some of the most memorable responses came from Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Asked to rebut the 90-second answer of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to a question from the moderators, Duterte quipped, “There’s nothing to rebut. I agree with what she said.” Or words to that effect.
And when it was Duterte’s turn to respond to a question from the moderators, this time concerning his reported penchant for extra-judicial killings and his alleged loose morals, he denied the first and attributed the second to “biological” needs.
Like Poe, Duterte also said a mouthful when he vowed to stop corruption and criminality, including drug trafficking, “in three to six months” from assuming the presidency.
If Duterte had such a talent, he would be the crime fighter of choice for the United States which has had difficulty getting rid of the mob and is not getting far in combating the problem of drugs.
Someone could also have reminded Duterte that when the New People’s Army collects “revolutionary taxes” and demands payment for “permits to campaign,” those are criminal acts – yet he has abetted them. That makes him an accessory to the crime.
At any rate, it was Poe who was designated to react to Duterte’s statement, but she tried too hard to be polite. She only managed to remind Duterte to be careful because the women he dealt with could have a boyfriend or could be married. It was the former teacher in Poe telling a naughty pupil to behave. Spank. Spank.
One almost wished that it was Santiago who had been asked to make the rebuttal – she with her convoluted English and barbed tongue – but then, Duterte and Santiago had nice words to say to each other, early on, and could not have been expected to throw verbal daggers.
Mar Roxas was the most pugnacious of the five presidential contenders. Perhaps owing to his poor survey ranking, behind Binay, Poe and Duterte, Roxas tried to come on very strong, both in his attacks on his rivals and in his claim to an impressive record of performance.
At one point, Roxas offered an analogy as quoted in media: “I have a simple question with a simple answer. Who will you choose as your daily driver to entrust your child: Is it someone with a case of corruption, a hot-head who is prone to accidents, or someone who is just learning to drive? Or will you choose someone you have known for a long time, someone who has never taken advantage of you, and someone who comes with a good recommendation from a former employer?”
This left him wide open for a reminder from Binay that Roxas had been the epitome of incompetence in dealing with the Yolanda disaster.
Defensively, Roxas protested that he was in Tacloban the day before, on the day of and in the days following the tragedy. He claimed staying for 16 days attending to the problem.
Well, Roxas’s presence was not much help. Millions in Yolanda relief funds are missing, tons of relief goods and food were left to rot, and to this day, thousands of missing persons have not been accounted for in the government’s desperate effort to minimize the official casualty count. .
I myself wrote a piece on the Roxas-Soliman-Gazmin management principle which they called, “The Convergent Approach” – meaning, no one was really in charge and each one was left to his or her own devices. No wonder, the result was SNAFU – Situation Normal. All F*cked Up.
As a native of that city, I know that Taclobanons have not forgiven Roxas for his heartless remark, “Bahala na kayo sa buhay niyo.”
One of the most significant exchanges between Roxas and Binay was when the former pointed out that “there are two Makatis.” He referred to “the Makati of the Ayalas” and the poor sections of the city governed by the Binays.
Someone could have added that, in truth, there are also two countries in our hapless Philippines. The country of the wealthy and the influential and the country of the poor, the jobless and the homeless.
Hopefully the next two presidential debates will focus on that without the forced civility and politeness. ([email protected])
