THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the questions to be asked during the presidential and vice presidential debates organized by the poll body to be held on Tuesday will come from various 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,” according to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez during a virtual briefing.
This is because the poll body is scheduled to advise the candidates of the overall topics to be discussed for the first debate scheduled for presidential candidates on March 19 and March 20 for the vice-presidential candidates, both of which will be held at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.
The second presidential debates will be held on April 3, also at the same venue.
Jimenez said there will be no penalties for national candidates who decide to skip the debates organized by the Comelec.
“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 explained.
He said election laws in the country state that candidates may use mass media for their election campaigns.
“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 added.