Comelec studying possible debate among Senate bets
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is studying the possibility of organizing a debate among senatorial candidates in the May 2019 midterm elections.
“We are looking at it. A lot of organizations are expressing interest in conducting debates but the question really is how are you going to call a debate with at least 50 candidates? That’s the logistical question there,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.
“So, it is being studied carefully,” he added.
The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) has already expressed, although informally, its interest in helping the election body with the debates.
“If you remember in 2016 they were instrumental in getting Pilipinas Debates off the ground. We are looking at these old partnerships and we hope we could come up with a solution,” said Jimenez.
And with at least 50 senatorial aspirants, the poll official said there is the problem on how to group the candidates.
“We can say it is by mere batches. But there might be those that will question why is he/she in batch 2? So it will still boil down into why is there a division,” said Jimenez.
Using the survey results, as basis to divide the candidates may also be unacceptable, he said.
“The Comelec is sort of leery about any move to segregate candidates in this way preferring, of course, to treat all candidates, regardless of standing in the surveys, as equal,” said Jimenez.
In the May 2016 election, the Comelec, together with its media partners organized three presidential debates dubbed as #PiliPinasDebates2016.
Due to the successful conduct of the debates, then Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said they want to make the debates a regular thing during elections.
“We want to make these debates a part of the fabric of Philippine elections that can successfully penetrate the political consciousness of many Filipinos for it is high time that our politics to veer from popularity and personalities and move towards policy pronouncements, platforms, and performance,” he said at that time.