MANILA, Philippines (Updated 11:27 a.m.) — The Commission on Elections will move its scheduled presidential and vice presidential town hall debates to later dates, and will now be sponsored by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP).
In a streamed conference on Friday, Commissioner George Garcia said the set town hall debates on April 23 and 24 have been moved to April 30 and May 1 instead.
“KBP offered instead its support to hold the debates on Saturday and Sunday and they will be our partner, for free,” he said in Filipino.
Garcia assured the public that the town hall debates will proceed and they are in the process of coordinating with the campaign teams of the candidates to apologize and reiterate that the event will proceed at a later date so they can secure their presence.
Commissioner Rey Bulay, in the same press conference, also apologized to the candidates for the suspension of the debates.
“We ensure you that the delay will be looked into, on what action the Commission will do on the delay and the resetting,” he added in Filipino.
‘Give us a week’
The resetting of the town hall debates came after reports circulated on Thursday night that Comelec’s partner Vote Pilipinas was involved in a payment mess with Sofitel, venue of the past debates.
Vote Pilipinas has been the poll body’s partner with other election-related activities such as voter registration, Ferolino said, adding that they did not see any reason why they cannot be their partner for the debates.
Garcia said he only learned of the issue days earlier, but he explained that the Comelec is not a party to the contract between Vote Pilipinas and the hotel management.
Bulay also explained that the Comelec is prohibited from using public funds in the conduct of the debates.
He then said the commission will conduct an investigation into the issue and will release its findings, on public record, after a week.
Garcia meanwhile said the investigation will cover why Vote Pilipinas was chosen, what was the basis for the partnership, and why the debates event were given to them. — Kristine Joy Patag