VP debate still focuses on no-show Marcos Jr.

TRYING to dislodge Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from the lead in the polls, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano stepped up his attack on the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos during a vice presidential debate organized by ABS-CBN.

But Marcos, bashed by his rivals during the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-sanctioned vice presidential debate on April 10 over his revisionist view of his late father’s martial rule, was not there to deflect Cayetano’s broadsides.

The running mate of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago skipped the debate but issued a statement explaining that he was attending private meetings and taking part in a “unity caravan” in Batangas province.

He said he was also taking time out from his campaign so that he and his wife, Louise Araneta Marcos, could celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary.

A scornful Cayetano ridiculed Marcos’ explanation for his absence, saying Marcos was “running away from the debate like his family ran away with the Filipinos’ money.”

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, running mate of Vice President Jejomar Binay, also did not come to the debate.

Honasan said he had prior commitments in Mindanao that coincided with the debate.

He said he could not reschedule those commitments on short notice.

Not sanctioned by the Comelec, Sunday’s debate was not compulsory. ABS-CBN was the sole organizer and the debate was held at the network’s compound in Quezon City.

Only Cayetano, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, Sen. Francis Escudero and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV took part in the ABS-CBN debate.

Talking piece

But it was Marcos who emerged as the talking piece for the debaters, as they strove to pull ahead of the pack with less than a month to go before the May 9 vote.

It was Robredo who gave Cayetano the opportunity to put Marcos back in the discussion during the second round of the debate, when the candidates were allowed to throw questions at each other.

Robredo asked Cayetano why he attacked Marcos so hard during the first debate when they belonged to the same party, the Nacionalista Party.

“It’s too bad he’s not here. They ran away with the people’s money, now they’re running away again,” Cayetano said, citing the Marcos family’s stash of $10 billion in alleged ill-gotten wealth and Marcos’ links to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

“In his SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth), he put P500 million, but did not work a single day in his life,” Cayetano said.

Trillanes said Marcos needed to explain himself. “Let’s remove his being son of a dictator,” he said. “Let’s look at his record as a senator. What has he done in the past six years?”

He also belittled Marcos’ education, suggesting that Marcos’ claim of having gone to Oxford University and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was dubious.

At the start of the debate, the four candidates were given the chance to present their platforms, and they strove to show the difference between their plans.

Both Escudero, running mate of Sen. Grace Poe, and Robredo, running mate of Liberal Party presidential standard-bearer Mar Roxas, vowed to put an end to contractualization to stabilize employment.

Cayetano reduced the Philippines’ main problems to a question of “political will,” claiming that only he and his presidential running mate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, could walk their talk, while Trillanes—raising the rear in the vice presidential race in voter preference polls—pushed for a national identification system to maintain peace and order.

Escudero said he and Poe would eradicate contractualization, or the practice of employers of limiting workers to short-term contracts to avoid having to hire them permanently and paying them benefits.

He said the Poe-Escudero administration would give P1 billion to each province, and push for 100-percent coverage of PhilHealth, including zero billing for the poor in hospitals, and free state college education.

When her turn came, Robredo said she agreed that there should be no more contractualization.

“We will push for security of tenure, penalties for employers who violate the law, ensure jobs with stable earnings, so people can have their own homes, eat three meals a day, and live life with dignity,” she said.

Expanded services

The widow of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said she and Roxas would expand existing government services in the health sector, including the removal of consultation fees and the distribution of free medicines, and to localize Department of Education (DepEd) programs to the regions or provinces.

“We will have a one-doctor per family policy. Education should not be an impediment, we want to decentralize the powers of the DepEd so there’s local treatment of programs, so school programs are regionalized and suited to provincial needs and rural development,” she said.

Robredo also said the next secretary of transportation and communication should not come from the Cabinet of President Aquino.

“We should not hire those who previously held Cabinet positions,” she said, adding that she would suggest to the new President to form a search committee to choose his officials.

Cayetano said he and Duterte’s program was simple: “Federalism, economic reforms, eradicate crime, drugs, corruption in three to six months.”

Political will

Seeking to stand in contrast to his rivals, Cayetano said the question of platforms was not the problem. “Everything they are promising, we have done in Davao and Taguig. Take out your phones, Google, ‘master plan, housing,” he said.

“The problem is leadership, political will… . There’s no leadership,” he said, drawing applause from his supporters. “Let them talk about platform. As for us, we will just do it. We will get it done for you.”

Trillanes said he would push for a national identification system, increased allowances for policemen and a stronger internal affairs department in the Philippine National Police to discourage corrupt law enforcers.

He said he would press for a stop to the implementation of the K-12 program, which added two years to basic education in the Philippines.

Senior high school, he said, “would only be a hardship to parents and teachers.”

Marcos wealth

Responding to a question on how he would recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, Trillanes noted the report of the Presidential Commission on Good Government that it had recovered at least half of the family’s stash.

“I want to focus on the status of these cases,” he said.

Asked if he would support a declaration of martial law, Trillanes said he would under the right circumstances. “If there’s basis, such as threats to national security, then we will support,” he said.

“I am confident with our people, whether you push it or support it, Filipinos will be at the forefront [of such a call],” he said.

Escudero said he was not as quarrelsome or combative as candidates like Cayetano, but was doing his best to serve.

Responding to Cayetano’s question on why he has not confronted Marcos on martial law abuses, he cited his record of legislating bills against torture, enforced disappearances, and compensation for victims of the dictatorship.

“I may not have fought with Senator Marcos … but I have delicadeza (sense of propriety). In the same way I don’t want to use my position to further my ambitions, I don’t want to use my being a senator to attack someone else,” Escudero said.

Asked how the government should deal with the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) group to peace in Mindanao, Robredo said it was a shame that no law had been passed for “true representation of their complaints and their grievances” in Muslim Mindanao.

Though she did not mention the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, she said legislation was necessary to give voice to Muslims, Christians and indigenous groups in Mindanao.

“That’s the danger that if we don’t listen to them. The attraction of extremism, the attraction to [IS] is so strong,” Robredo said.

Cayetano said his “weakness” as a politician was his combativeness.

“It’s a strength in a public official, but it’s a weakness in a politician. The people like their politicians to act sweet. I was advised not to be so angry,” he said.

“But I don’t really care about image… When you talk about crime, corruption, drugs, how ca you not be angry?” said Cayetano, who repeatedly referred to his family as his source of strength.

Voter preference polls place Marcos, Robredo and Escudero within a few points of each other in a race that remains wide open with just 21 days left before Election Day.

The three other contenders lag far behind them. With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Niña P. Calleja; and Nestor Corrales, Inquirer.net

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