CEBU CITY—A disagreement over the rules delayed the second presidential debate at the University of the Philippines Visayas by more than an hour Sunday.
Off camera, administration candidate Manuel Roxas II objected to opposition candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay’s plan to bring documents and notes with him to the podium, arguing that this was against the rules set by the Commission on Elections.
Binay, on the other hand, said he had been told by the debate moderator Luchi Cruz-Valdez of TV5 that he could bring his notes.
The three-hour debate was set to begin at 5 p.m., but began at 6:30 p.m. after organizers ironed out the last-minute disagreement between the Roxas and Binay camps.
Each side blamed the other for the delay that sent TV-5 anchors scrambling to kill time on live national TV.
“TV5 assured the vice president that he can bring documents. These documents will be used by the VP to disprove the allegations against him,” said Joey Salgado, communications director of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance.
But LP campaign spokesman Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez said it was the Binay camp that wanted to change the rules at the last minute.
“The Comelec rule, since first debate, is that candidates are not allowed to bring notes on stage. VP Binay wants to be exempted from this rule, gusto niya may kodigong bitbit [he wants to bring crib sheets] and his handlers are talking to TV5 and Comelec,” Gutierrez said.
“We are not asking for any rule change. It is VP Binay who is asking for an exemption from the rule,” Gutierrez added.
Valdez apologized for the delay and admitted that it was her fault for assuring the Binay camp that the vice president could bring his documents to the podium during the debate.
“However, the Comelec has ruled that no notes or documents are allowed at the podium. Let us abide by the rules,” she said.
Earlier, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista and some Manila-based reporters were not allowed into the debate venue because he did not have a pass.
Unlike the journalists, however, Bautista was able to get a pass in five minutes.
“I’m pleased about our security preparations because when I tried to enter, they did not allow me to do so,” Bautista said in Filipino. “I thought I could get in simply by showing my face, but I could not.”
The Comelec, TV5 and Philippine Star promised to improve on the first debate organized by GMA7 and the Inquirer, but the delay set it off on a rough start.
While local reporters were not allowed into the first debate in Cagayan de Oro, it was national reporters who were disallowed in the main debate hall because of “limited space.”
Bautista later admitted that the second debate was kept exclusive to TV5 and Philippine Star “because the Comelec did not have the budget and could not afford to sponsor such a huge event.”
About 30 Manila-based reporters covering the camps of presidential candidates Binay, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Grace Poe of Partido Galing at Puso, and Roxas converged on Cebu after sorties from various provinces to cover the presidential debate.
Not one of them was allowed access to the debate hall, however, and were herded into a cramped “media center” where TV monitors had been set up.
The media center could only accommodate 150 local and national journalists even if the organizers boasted that 300 reporters applied for accreditation.
Of the 300 reporters from print, radio and television and their crew, who applied for accreditation, only 30 had been granted the passes.
Organizers said they gave priority to Cebu media inside the debate hall.
The Poe camp set up a “viewing room” for reporters at the Waterfront Hotel owned by Poe’s allies, the Gatchalians.
