By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent
with LITO RULONA
Correspondent
NON-GOVERNMENT organization worker Mark Brazil squirmed every time GMA 7 went on a commercial break during the “Pilipinas Debates 2016,” counting the minutes as one TV ad goes one after another.
Brazil was among the hundreds who watched the debate on the huge TV screen in Divisoria on Sunday.
As the TV ads appeared, Brazil and the others would while their time watching the supporters of Mayor Rodrigo pitched for their candidate on the opposite stage in Divisoria.
“Too much TV commercial ads taking the debate time…,” said Rhona Canoy, principal of the International School.
Brazil said the ads took the time off for candidates to answer pressing problems in Mindanao like poverty, agriculture, mining and environment.
He said he wanted to hear the candidates offer solutions or present action plans to solve these problems.
“I have enough of promises and rhetorics. We need to see their action plans,” Brazil said.
Canoy lamented that there was only one question about the Bangsamoro Basic Law, and only Sen. Grace Poe was asked instead of requiring all the candidates to answer.
“I would like to know who among the candidates will pursue the peace process during his administration,” she said.
Former vice mayor Antonio Soriano, convenor of the Citizens Watch for Good Governance, said he was dismayed because of the time limitations, pointing out that GMA allotted more time for advertisements.
Soriano also urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to revise the debate format.
He suggested one-line ads instead so that there there would be no “lull sa mga presidential candidates kung unsa man gani ang gusto nila isulti. They didn’t have anything to do during the commercial breaks,” he said.
Soriano also said one question should be answered by all candidates so people would really see differences in their positions.
Msgr. Rey Monsanto, consultor of the local Roman Catholic Archdiocese, said the TV commercials spoiled the debatem and the candidates “failed to expound their programs of government especially on Mindanao issues.”
NGO worker Dodong Borja said the debate fell flat in his expectation that it would help him discern who among the candidates he would vote to become the next President.
Borja said all the candidates had “vague” answers about development issues in Mindanao.
He said he would like a better understanding on how much of the national budget is poured to Mindanao.
Jobags Bagabuyo, a resident, said there was no question on how to deal with Mindanao’s other insurgency problem: the New People’s Army.
“Sayang, they have a very lackluster performance because they were given short time. The ads should have been limited to allow the candidates more time to explain their answers,” Bagabuyo said.
“I wondered how the organizers came up with the questions. It is like they do not have a good script writer,” former councilor Birchman Abejuela said.
Philippine Daily Inquirer’s John Nery said they conducted several “town hall meetings” across Mindanao to be able to get the questions that would be raised during the debates.
Iryn Salcedo, a nurse at the JR Borja Hospital said she was disappointed that the candidates could not offer a solution to the image of a river with no bridge in Zamboanga del Norte.
She said it meant that the candidates have little grasp on Mindanao’s woes.
“They only offered motherhood statements. They did not offer solutions,” Salcedo said.
Along Corrales Extension, Nelia Menfor craned her hear trying to listen if she could hear the ongoing debate as she sells peanuts, cookies and merienda to the supporters of the candidates who gathered outside the Capitol University.
Menfor said she would have wanted to go inside and listen to the debate if she can only bring her baskets of goodies inside the University.
The debate organizers, GMA 7 and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, citing security and production reasons decided to limit the access of people to the venue.
Cagayan de Oro media workers who covered the debates on Sunday came out complaining on the restrictions imposed against them.
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