Roy Tang

My reactions to the first #PiliPinasDebates2016:

As expected, nothing too difficult was discussed, and we got mostly motherhood statements from the candidates.

Format was a bit strange, what is the format for debates in other countries? Shouldn’t all candidates be allowed to respond to each question?

Not enough time to give meaty answers really, and did we really need so many ads?

Poe well-prepared, ready with answers and statistics, not much implementation details though

Duterte having trouble articulating himself sometimes, keeps harping on fixing everything within 3-6 months, without elaborating how. IDK much about Davao, but my impression is he didn’t do that in 3-6 months. But I am happy that his “killing criminals” rhetoric now includes the rider that it must be within the scope of the law

Binay’s preparation for this debate seems to have been to keep telling himself “I’m a decisive leader!!! I’m a decisive leader!!! I’m a decisive leader!!!”

Miriam no longer has the fire she used to have, stumbled a few times. She could have a much stronger rebuttal as to why we the constitution has that ban on political dynasties if only her VP candidate’s family wasn’t the reason we needed to put that there!

Duterte agreeing with people and insisting that implementation is the problem - upvotes. But none of the candidates detailed implementation plans.

Discussion on policies and issues generally one-sided - everyone agrees with the stuff that has to be done, but no one really talks about details of how, etc. Reflection of the fact that we don’t really have parties with differing ideologies (aside from Duterte’s federalism. Oh and Binay’s insistence that political dynasties are cool LOL)

Aside from Binay getting shot down a few times, nothing too fiery/exciting happened. Candidates didn’t really do rebuttals so much as elaborate on their own plans

Roxas’ closing statement is a much better approach than all his political ads and strategies so far

I know all too well that you can’t really form an accurate assessment of a person from one interview so I don’t really expect that the candidates will have room to espouse all the details of their platforms, but I hope the succeeding debates can at least give more challenging questions and a bit more time for the candidates to elaborate.

I missed round 1 (rewatched the archive), but on my way home I noticed the security guards in our subdivision listening to the debate on the radio. Say what you will about the debate’s format and lack of challenging questions, but the fact that we are having any sort of discussion at all that manages to capture the public’s attention is already an improvement. Hopefully the organizers of the next two debates manage to learn something and try to improve on the first one