Philippines

Vice President Jejomar Binay has cancelled his scheduled sorties in nearby Misamis Oriental on Saturday and is taking a break instead a day before the start of the presidential debates here.

“She will come in her best fighting form,” Santiago’s media relations officer, Kim Patria, told Rappler in a phone interview.

Among the 5 presidential candidates gearing up for the first Commission on Elections (Comelec)-sanction presidential debate on Sunday, February 21, it can be argued that Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II is among the most equipped.

It will be the first time that the public will see all the 2016 presidential candidates on one stage.

The Cagayan de Oro city police on Friday, February 19, started cordoning off the area around Capitol University, where the first presidential debate since 1992 will be held

autista said all five presidential candidates – Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor Santiago, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte all agreed to attend the debate, which will start at 5 p.m.

THE first presidential debate initiated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be held in Cagayan de Oro (CDO) this Sunday.

Davao City mayor and PDP-Laban standard-bearer Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to boycott the first presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) following allegations of discrimination in media coverage.

Journalists from Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao are crying foul over alleged discrimination in the media coverage for the presidential debate organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday, February 21.

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he is now ready to join presidential debates after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 1st division on Thursday denied all four disqualification (DQ) petitions against him.

Duterte, in a press conference late Monday night, said he was puzzled why the Comelec included him in the list of those invited to the Feb. 21 presidential debate in Cagayan de Oro, when it still has not resolved the disqualification cases filed against him.

Through the said partnership, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the presidential debates will be more accessible to millions of Filipinos via the social media among others.