Believe it or not, but Cebuanos eagerly await every next edition of the ongoing live TV debates between Alfredo Lim and Joseph Estrada. And it's not because they want to be enlightened but rather they want to be entertained.
It does not seem to matter that Lim and Estrada are contesting the mayorship of Manila and are thus far removed from Cebu. Anywhere in Cebu where people talk politics, the talk almost always eventually shifts to the Lim-Estrada debates.
Also, the Cebuanos who have been following the debates seem to agree that Lim is losing these encounters even if, at the same time, they do not believe Estrada is winning them. To them, it is a big mistake for Lim to take on Estrada in these face-offs.
In these debates, no punches are pulled. Each protagonist accuses the other of almost anything under the sun right to his face, in front of the rolling cameras, and right on straight into the living rooms of Filipinos the length and breadth of the country.
And here's the reason why Cebuanos think Lim is losing even if Estrada is not necessarily winning -- to them, Estrada is damaged goods already. He is at rock bottom and could not sink any further. Lim, on the other hand, is still somewhat up there. Any punch can floor him.
Look at it this way. Estrada in an ex-convict, found guilty of plunder. Lim can point a finger right at his face and call him a thief and it will not cause even the slightest quiver on Estrada's face. Lim achieves nothing calling a convicted plunderer a thief.
On the other hand, Lim, by packaging himself as cleaner than Estrada, only makes himself vulnerable to Estrada's every attack. Each time Estrada accuses Lim of anything, the public will always end having second thoughts about Lim regardless of the veracity of the accusation.
Besides, Estrada is probably a better street brawler in real life than he is in the movies. Once, when Lim called him a plunderer, Estrada merely smiled and asked why Lim still visited him in detention and even dropped to his knees, literally crying for forgiveness.
Lim paled as if he would die and could only mumble an inane reply, to which Estrada jumped for the kill, telling the TV audience that Lim also accepted P2 million from him as “baon†for a trip abroad. This could have been a lie. But lies can kill.