FRONTRUNNER vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. skipped the debate Sunday but his absence failed to deter his rivals Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV from attacking him on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of his family.
Marcos excused himself to celebrate his 23rd wedding anniversary with his wife after a campaign sortie in Batangas and several meetings.
Another vice presidential candidate, Senator Gregorio Honasan, also failed to show up at the debate sponsored by ABS-CBN due to prior commitments in Mindanao.
Cayetano stepped up his attack and repeated the issues he raised against Marcos during the first and only Commission on Elections-sponsored vice presidential debate at the University of Sto. Tomas on April 10.
Cayetano and Trillanes taunted Marcos for “running away from the debate.”
Two other candidates—Senator Francis Escudero of Partido Galing at Puso and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo of the ruling Liberal Party—repeatedly mentioned farmers in promoting their commitment to fight for the poorest of the poor.
Escudero said the violent Kidapawan dispersal—in which two farmers protesting for food aid were shot dead by police—would not happen under his and his running mate Senator Grace Poe’s leadership.
“There will be no repeat of Kidapawan,” Escudero vowed in Filipino. “We will address the root of the problem, poverty. We will eradicate hunger, not the hungry.”
Robredo said she was completely surprised that the Sumilao farmers would be marching from Bukidnon in Mindanao to Manila, which they did nine years ago when they demanded that lands be distributed to them.
At the time, Robredo served as a lawyer for the Sumilao farmers pro bono.
Trillanes, for his part, said he would push for the implementation of the national ID system to fight crime. He also vowed to stop K to 12 program.
Cayetano promised a “leadership with political will” that could wipe out criminality in three to six months.
During the debate, Robredo said she would recommend that the next president change all the Cabinet secretaries under President Benigno Aquino III.
“This is because they could look into a different perspective. If a Cabinet secretary has been in a position for so long, he or she sees [the same work] differently already. I would advise the President not to choose people lightly,” Robredo said.
Robredo also said it would be her mandate as vice president to support the president, whoever that was, but said her capabilities would be maximized if her running mate, Manuel Roxas II were elected president.
Cayetano, on the other hand, said he would get things done.
“Let others present their plans. We will just do it,” he said. He reiterated his and Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s platform: federalism, anti-crime, and anti-corruption.
If both elected, Cayetano said he and Duterte would implement bold solutions to suppress crime and corruption within six months of their term.
He said only a federal form of government could create inclusive growth.
Cayetano was at a loss, however, when asked to defend Duterte for his remarks about the rape of an Australian missionary by rioting inmates in 1989.
A recording of that message posted on Facebook showed the mayor saying that the victim was beautiful and that it was such a waste—and that the mayor should have been first. With Rio N. Araja