Last Friday morning, I sat with my eyes glued to the TV set watching the Republican debates at the University of Miami that was covered by CNN.
I was amazed this time with the presidential debate among the four candidates of the Republican Party because, unlike the last debate, the candidates were more presidential in their behavior, their collective output was more substantive minus the personal insults hurled by the candidates against each other.
The topics were so varied from economic policy, social security, international trade and controversial statements of businessman/front-runner Donald Trump.
The debates were useful for the people to know the stand of the candidates on different issues and the exchanges focused on the capability of the candidates to lead the US.
At this moment, there is now a move to block the leading Republican candidate Donald Trump from securing the party’s nomination. In the last debate, Sen. Marco Rubio performed well followed by Ted Cruz while Trump was a baffling mess in this latest performance.
What I love about the CNN coverage was that after the debate there was a panel that analyzed the debate and the performances of the candidates. I really envy the coverage and the analysis of the panels of CNN. I wish that we could have the same quality of debate and coverage here.
In our country the second presidential debate will be held in Cebu, specifically at the University of the Philippines campus.
Per information, the debate will be held in the audiovisual room at UP Cebu grounds. It can accommodate only 500 persons inside but the supporters can gather outside of the AVR in the school grounds.
I don’t understand why the debate is not held in a bigger venue like the convention hall in front of UP where the debate of the local officials was held in the last election.
I also hope that the hosts of the debate would be more searching and thorough with their questions to the candidates and they allow an exchange of ideas among these aspirants.
Let us not lose sight of the importance of the debate among the presidential candidates. The debates will give our people the opportunity to see for themselves the competence and capability of the candidates to lead our country and government.
In democracy, the power to govern belongs to the people that is why the government must govern with the consent of the people because sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from the people.
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The Supreme Court order mandating the Commission on Elections to provide the voting machine receipts will help ensure the integrity and honesty in the forthcoming election.
The Comelec’s plan to appeal its case at the SC stems from its concern that there won’t be enough time to implement the order and it may even jeopardize the forthcoming elections because printing of the receipts will take additional time.
But we can not compromise the integrity, credibility and honesty of the election especially in light of the Compostela recount case.
In that recount, former Compostela town mayor Richie Wagas managed to prove that the results of the monitored manual count was different from the results given by the automated voting count machines.
I don’t know what will become of this development but let’s see if the elections will be postponed or not.
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