ABS-CBN’s Harapan: The Tandem Presidential Debate has been canceled. The surprising and unexpected reason: several candidates for president and vice president have either backed out or declined to participate.

This is shocking news. Who would have thought that the likes of Senators Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar and their equally esteemed running mates would find it not worth their while to join a no holds barred debate? Well, to be fair to Villar’s running mate Senator Loren Legarda, her reluctance to participate is understandable considering the beating she got  last time.

(excerpts from a newsbreak.com.ph report)

• In a surprise result, Sen. Loren Legarda did poorly in ABS-CBN’s Harapan: The Vice-Presidential Debate, based on feedback from citizens who participated in the debate.
• Legarda failed to get 50% or more in most of feedback from the audience through the WARS.  She was asked about her experience in governance, her plans on improving the state of education, as well as on her pet themes, environment and climate change.
• Aside from doing poorly in the WARS, she also did badly in the on-line poll through abs-cbnNEWS.com chat with netizens, http://abs-cbnnews.com/harapan. The poll asked the question: Who is the most believable among the candidates in the Harapan debate?

It’s just too bad the debate scheduled for this Sunday will no longer push through. It would have given us yet another glimpse into what these people are really made of. I would have enjoyed watching Villar deflect questions about the C-5 controversy. And, of course, who would want to miss the Great Yellow Hope in action. I wonder how he would have fared against his cousin former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro or Senator Richard Gordon.

By the way Teodoro was among those who backed out. He claims he has already saturated forums and debates. Well, at least he wasn’t being a jackass about it not like Villar who gave an excuse that can only be described as pamimilosopo.

(excerpt from an abs-cbnnews.com report)

Villar and Legarda said they already committed to visit their supporters in Bicol on the same date.

Villar added they did not back out because they never confirmed their participation.

Now, to be fair , I should also identify those who were all too willing to attend the debate. In no particular order, the Walang Pakisama (sa mga naduwag) are former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr., evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva, former MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and Senator Richard Gordon.

The gall of those 4 candidates for trying to re-invent the wheel. Don’t they know most Pinoy voters respond better to song and dance routines than speeches on the economy, population growth and other serious stuff? They should ask Senator Aquino. Better yet they should get lessons from him on the finer points of campaigning without really trying. After that they could also ask him to provide tips on how to cover all the bases. 

Oh, I almost forgot. Gordon is now part of that elite group of candidates who think they’re cute. He now has a music video of his own.  Before you watch it be sure to prepare yourself to be disappointed because Gordon didn’t really sing or dance on this video.

I’m sure you were also surprised the first time you watched that. I too  never imagined Moymoy Palaboy as celebrity political endorsers. But that shouldn’t really surprise anyone anymore. Ater all we’re talking about Pinoy-style elections.

1. government subsidy for election campaigns (Fernando)

2. empowering local government units with increased budgets (Binay)

3. eliminating the “pwede na yan” (that will do) mentality (Legarda)

I am in favor of Fernando’s idea of passing the burden of financing election campaigns to the government. One obvious benefit is that it would level the playing field and give virtual unknowns equal opportunity to make themselves known to the electorate. Voters would then have more choices other than the usual faces.

I’m just not sure if having this set-up could really help put a stop to corruption as some people including Fernando believe. Maybe it could if elected officials only steal to pay back their election sponsors or to recoup their own expenses. Unfortunately, that is not the only reason why graft and corruption occurs. If it were then let’s not allow our politicians to spend another centavo from their own pockets.

Related to this, I think it’s about time  media entities especially the big TV and radio networks consider providing real public service by offering free airtime to all candidates. Anyone care to be the first? Kapuso? Kapamilya? As an incentive, I promise to be a loyal viewer of whoever will be the first to heed this call. Religious stations don’t count.

Moving on…

Binay’s idea of empowering local government units or LGUs by increasing their budgets also caught my attention even though it is nothing new. It’s an idea that has been floated around by other politicians in the past.

In an ideal world, giving local government units bigger budgets and free hand to manage it should be enough to ensure the delivery of better government services. The only problem is — our world is far from ideal. Binay himself has said during the ANC Forum that favoritism still comes into play in the granting of budgets. He noted that if the LGU official is not in the good graces of the powers that be he or she would have a hard time securing the funds he needs to effectively govern his area of jurisdiction.

There is one other issue that should be identified with regards to the disbursement of budgets. It’s about checks and balances. This is an issue that needs addressing even under the present set-up. Without proper accounting and auditing the risk of misappropriation becomes greater. Someone should closely monitor the use of any and all government funds. In fact, those doing the monitoring should be monitored as well. And, if we really want to look at it in the extreme, the monitors of the monitors should also be monitored. It’s that or we come up with a measure that would force corrupt officials to control their thievery.

Finally, let’s look at Senator Legarda’s idea that we do away with the “pwede na yan” (that will do) mentality. If I didn’t have anything to add to the idea I would have simply brushed it aside as just another motherhood statement.

In any case, Legarda correctly identified this albeit indirectly as a flaw in the Filipino character. Many, if not all of us, have been guilty of having such a mentality. It’s sad. As a nation, we should once and for all rid ourselves of this kind of mentality if not we condemn ourselves to an eternity of mediocrity. Unfortunately, purging ourselves of this mindset is  easier said than done especially where older generations are concerned. It is the younger generations who still have a chance of not developing such a mindset. That is, if we, the older generations, will try to create for them an environment that punishes mediocrity and rewards excellence. We should have done this yesterday.

Come May 2010, this “pwede na” mentality will again rear its ugly head. Many of us will vote for panderers, liars, thieves, and their ilk. Some will do so because they  don’t know any better. Others because they genuinely believe their choice. Sadly, most will do so because they are convinced the lesser evil is “pwede na.”

The second forum was a marked improvement over the first one. Much to my relief, no one asked the participants about the book they last read or the movie they last saw. The producers and hosts did us a big favor by doing away with those nonsensical, pa-cute questions.

I was especially pleased Ms. Che-Che Lazaro asked the guests about their assets. For me, this is the kind of question we should all be asking our candidates if we want to be able to gauge their honesty and commitment to good governance. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the guests’ micro-expressions and body language as they tried to be as vague as possible with their answers to Ms. Lazaro’s query about their wealth. I’m sure many people noticed how the voice of one of the guests quivered and the facial muscles of another became a bit tense while trying to answer the question. It was beautiful TV in a twisted kind of way.

We should all do as Ms. Lazaro did. We should ask our candidates really tough questions even if we already know they will just beat around the bush and ultimately give us answers not even remotely in tune with the question.

How much are you worth? How did you get to be so wealthy? Have you ever stolen public money? Three simple yet powerful questions that can uncover a politician’s real intentions for seeking public office.

I’ll be looking forward to hearing these three questions asked in the succeeding episodes. And, if I may suggest, the forum hosts should also consider asking this question: Would you push for a law that would have the spouse, partner or closest relative of a government official facing charges of graft and corruption treated as an accomplice and charged equally?

Let’s see how they’ll answer that.

This is not about Mr. Estrada’s carabao English and his failure to communicate effectively in that language (MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando also failed in that regard). This is about basic comprehension, which is important whether one is involved in menial work or is running a country.

I suppose we can all agree that all politicians have the habit of avoiding questions that can potentially put them on the spot. All the other forum participants — Senator Loren Legarda, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay — displayed this ability on several instances during the forum. But, unlike Estrada, these three participants were clearly deliberate about it. Estrada was not. To me, he appeared like he just didn’t understand some of the questions posed to him.

It’s either that or Mr. Estrada’s mind was simply too busy wandering off to some happy place. He was quite happy, wasn’t he? Perhaps, he was even too happy for his own good. Did Mr. Estrada even realize that the audience was not laughing with him but at him?

I hope the Opposition would be kind enough not to put Estrada through the rigors of another presidential campaign. Estrada deserves to enjoy his twilight years in peace. The opposition should consider this for Estrada’s sake if not the country’s.

In an Inquirer.net report, Binay is said to have welcomed the petition filed by partylist group Abakada Guro asking the Comelec to investigate the infomercials of perceived presidential aspirants.

Binay already has his excuse — that his TV ad is all about Makati and the benefits its residents are receiving.

I know I wasn’t born yesterday so I’ll just go ahead and call out what the good mayor is doing: “nagpapalusot.”

The same could be said of Senator Mar Roxas and Manny Villar should they also claim later on that their ads have nothing to do with the upcoming elections. Although, unlike Binay, Roxas and Villar will probably have a harder time defending their infomercials as anything other than campaign advertisements. But, who knows, Villar might claim he was just promoting duck-raising as an enterprise while Roxas might say — er. I can’t even think of a flimsy excuse for this one. I guess you’re on your own Mr. Roxas.

In any case, the general public need not hold their breath for a “palusutan” showdown anytime soon. No less than Comelec Chair Jose Melo has said that they cannot act on these ads. Apparently, the relevant laws and rules are cancelling out each other.

So, what’s a Comelec official to do? What else but pass the responsibility of determining if a violation had been committed to the voting public. What a disappointment. It would have been more interesting had he said “bahala na si Batman” (let Batman figure it out).

Levity aside, there’s a surrealistic quality to this whole situation that is worth examining. It’s like when you see a mound of shit and you call it as such because the fact of the matter is it really is a mound of shit. But then here comes someone challenging your belief, telling you it’s not shit but a tasty, delectable cupcake.

Now, I don’t know about you but I don’t plan on eating shit anytime in my near or distant future. I hate pastries as well.