MANILA —Three presidential candidates who have been lagging behind in the surveys appealed to students and the academe on Friday not to allow themselves to be swayed by pollster results when they cast their votes in May.
Nicanor "Nicky" Perlas, a known environmentalist, Senator Richard Gordon and evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva, standard-bearer of the Bangon Pilipinas movement, were the only candidates to appear at the presidential forum hosted by the Pinoy Media Congress at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines with ABS-CBN network as co-organizer.
"Do not be swayed by shallow popularity. Do not be swayed by surveys which tend to direct your mind to specific choices, but allow the Filipino people to make clear fundamental choices on the basis of vision, platform, competence and so on," Perlas told the audience of more than a thousand mass communication and journalism students and teachers from various parts of the country.
Perlas stressed: "We should make 2010 the most conscious election that we've ever had as a country."
Villanueva, a born-again Christian preacher, echoed the call of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines that the public should vote according to their conscience and not to be influenced by survey results.
Gordon, for his part, took a dig at Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manuel Villar, undoubtedly the biggest campaign spender among the eight presidential candidates with his political advertisements incessantly aired on television and radio.
He urged the audience not to be swayed by survey results that were influenced by mere advertising.
"Tumaas ang survey, nabola na kayo (The survey rating just went up and you're already beguiled)," Gordon said, adding that most advertisements are done in studios with "make up".
In his case, however, Gordon added, his political ads had "real" shots of him in action.
The most recent Pulse Asia survey had Villar and Liberal Party standard-bearer, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in a statistical tie, breaking the latter's lead in surveys following the death of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, in August last year.
The three presidential candidates' appeal to the audience came after a mass communication teacher asked them about their communication agenda if elected into office.
Villanueva said he would prioritize the Freedom of Information Act, which Congress failed to pass before it adjourned, and give "absolute protection to press freedom".
Perlas said he would give "no-holds-barred support to civil society", part of whom would be communicators.
"We're moving away from government to governance. We need the involvement of civil society and business in running the country to have true and genuine democracy," Perlas said.
Gordon, for his part, lamented that communication in the Philippines "is really down the tubes".
He said press freedom should be accompanied by responsibility with journalists not allowing themselves to be bought or dictated upon as to what information they will share with the public.
The forum was part of the fifth Pinoy Media Congress, a two-day conference of media students and academicians organized by the television and radio network ABS-CBN in partnership with the Philippine Association of Communication Educators, Foundation Inc. (PACE).
Presidential race frontrunners Aquino and Villar, administration bet Gilberto Teodoro, and comebacking former President Joseph Estrada were invited to the forum but were no-shows.
Militant PUP students had even prepared streamers around the campus condemning Aquino for his lack of action on the Hacienda Luisita issue.
When ABS-CBNnews.com chief Maritess Vitug announced that she would discuss the backgrounds of Aquino and Villar being the frontrunners and of Teodoro, being the administration bet, the former defense chief got the loudest cheers from the audience.
Seemingly surprised, Vitug told the young audience that perhaps they like Teodoro because of his "good looks". The audience, however, answered a collective "No!".
So Vitug asked, "Is it because of his smart answers?"
The audience said "Yes!"
When she gave Teodoro's brief background, Vitug, a veteran journalist, pointed out his less than stellar performance. For example, she said that despite being smart, he never chaired a House committee in his three terms as congressman.
Teodoro was only remembered for two things in Congress— his backing of the failed impeachment of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. and his support for convening Congress as a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution.
As for Villar, Vitug cited AC Nielsen statistics which showed that from October to December last year, the senator-billionaire spent P543 million in his political advertisements and P70 million in January alone, overshadowing Aquino's P7 million spent in the same month.
And when it came to Aquino, citing AC Nielsen data as well, Vitug said his family was his main source of funds for his senatorial bid in 2007.
His youngest sister, celebrity Kris Aquino, was his biggest donor in 2007, shelling out P20 million for his campaign. His mother, the late President Aquino, gave P10 million.
The forum, which did not follow a debate format, turned out to be lively and interesting despite the absence of the frontrunners, with the candidates present getting applauded when the audience liked their answers.
Asked how they would once again improve the quality of education in the country, Gordon said he would be an "education president".
He said he wanted to raise teachers' salaries to P40,000 a month and give every student a Kindle, a software and hardware platform that could display electronic books and other digital media but that people should be prepared for taxation that would help raise government revenues.
"You'll hate me for this," Gordon added.
Villanueva said he would want every province to have a "modern state university" and to do that, the government should be ready to "overhaul the dysfunctional education system" in the country.
Perlas said he would aim for the country to again be the "center of education of the world" where students can develop their full potential.
Asked what weaknesses in the Arroyo administration they would change if they became President, Perlas said it would be the country’s widespread poverty, the lack of preparedness for disasters as shown by the lack of proper response during Typhoon Ondoy, and widespread corruption.
Gordon also said it was corruption and the way President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo weakened institutions such as the Senate, the Supreme Court and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The presidential candidates were also asked about their own personal weaknesses.
Gordon candidly answered that it was his being a workaholic which left less time for his family, and his short temper.
"I have to listen a bit more but I also want people to assert themselves... I tend to draw out the best in people pero kapag babagal-bagal, tumataas ang presyon ko But if they’re slowpokes, by blood pressure goes up)" he said to laughter from the audience.
Villanueva admitted that he tends to cry when he sees extreme examples of poverty. He also said he feels a "holy anger" when injustice is done to people.
Perlas was more philosophical, saying a person’s moment of weakness comes "when you start thinking what you will lose, what you will give up in case you succumb to fear" before making a decision.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
