MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) stated that specific questions for the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates it is conducting will come from different sectors.
“The debate topics were agreed upon by the Comelec. We talked about what we felt is necessary to discuss in these debates. There will be input as to the specific questions from the different sectors that we are soliciting from and we feel that will give us a better picture of what the debates will look like,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in an online briefing.
This comes as the poll body prepares to notify candidates on the general topics to be addressed in the first debates, which are scheduled on March 19 for presidential candidates and March 20 for vice presidential candidates at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.
The second presidential debate will take place on April 3 at the same venue.
Jimenez stated that there are no other sanctions for national candidates who refuse to participate in Comelec-sponsored debates.
“First of all, mandatory participation in debates is kind of a minority situation. All over the world, for the most part, are voluntary for the candidates. In places where they are mandatory, for example, Argentina, there are legislated consequences such as forfeiture of their rights to use broadcast medium. In other countries, if you did not join the debate, you will not be allowed to broadcast television ads for example,” Jimenez said.
He stated that the country’s election laws require candidates to use mass media for their campaign.
“The e-rally is not a creation of any statute. It is an affirmative action for the part of Comelec and it is something that we feel has value and we feel should be forfeited if we feel the candidate refused to participate,” he said.
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