WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) organized three debates, ahead of the May 9 polls, to help the public scrutinize candidates running for the country’s highest post.
At 7 pm (Manila time) on Sunday, April 3, the Comelec holds its second PiliPinas debate for presidential bets. Nine of 10 presidential candidates are set to attend this second debate at the Sofitel Harbor Garden Tent.
The first presidential debate was held on March 19, and the third is scheduled on April 24.
Scroll down this page for live updates, context, analyses, and fact checks from Rappler as the debates unfold. Further down the page, click “load more.”
LATEST UPDATES
Defending anti-terror law in debate, Lacson misrepresents its ‘safeguard’
In defending the anti-terror law feared by human rights advocates, presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson, its primary author, misrepresented a “safeguard” clause during the Commission on Elections (Comelec) debate on Sunday, April 3.
“This is the only law with many safeguards, and one of the most important safeguard is, if cops arrest [somebody] for violation of the anti-terror act, immediately, within 24 hours, they need to report to the nearest judge or the Commisison on Human Rights,” Lacson said in Filipino during the human rights segment of the debate Sunday night.
Lacson, however, does not only get the time period wrong, he also cites a clause that has been weakened from the earlier version of the law.
Read the full story here.
Are Moreno and President Duterte talking on Marcos family’s tax issue?
Presidential bet and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno says he isn’t in talks with President Rodrigo Duterte on the Marcos family’s unpaid estate tax. He advises the Marcoses to distribute the initial P23 billion unpaid tax already as aid to the poor.
