''PiliPinas Debates 2016'' is a debate series administered by the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC) with the assistance of the

Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP; en, Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines) is a broadcast media organization in the Philippines which provides its members broadcasting standards. The KBP was organized on April 27, 19 ...

in preparation for the May 9, 2016 general election. In January 2016, the Commission on Elections confirmed that they would hold three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. This will be the first time that the COMELEC will host debates since the 1992 elections, with ABC-5 as the host network fresh from the launch of the recently restored broadcast network on February 21 of the same year, after a 20-year rest due to Martial Law. The debates were branded as ''PiliPinas Debates 2016''. The first word is a portmanteau of ''Pili'', Filipino for "choose" and ''Pinas'', shortcut for the Philippines in Filipino.

Broadcast and coverage

The first leg of the debate was conducted on Mindanao and was held on February 21 at the Mini-Theater Building of the

Capitol University Capitol University is a non-sectarian, co-educational private university located in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. It is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a stock corporation and operates with the authority of the Depa ...

Cagayan de Oro Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan ( ilo, Probinsia ti Cagayan; ibg, Provinsiya na Cagayan; itv, Provinsiya ya Cagayan; fil, Lalawigan ng Cagayan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Cagayan Valley region, covering ...

. It aired on

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

and was simulcast on Super Radyo DZBB, RGMA stations and KBP-affiliated member radio stations nationwide (GMA was a KBP member from April 1973 until the said network withdrew from its membership in September 2003) and its livestream channels. The Mindanao leg was moderated by

Mike Enriquez Miguel Castro Enriquez (; born September 29, 1951), professionally known as Mike Enriquez, is a Filipino television and radio newscaster. He is also the Consultant for radio operations of GMA Network, and president of the network's regional ...

and

Jessica Soho Maria Jessica Aspiras Soho (; born March 27, 1964) is a Filipino broadcast journalist known as the host of the news magazine program ''Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho'' (2004present) on GMA Network. She formerly anchored the newscast ''State of the N ...

and John Nery of

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded br ...

. The second leg was conducted in

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands ( Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; tl, Kabisayaan ), are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, ...

and was held at the Performing Arts Hall of the

University of the Philippines Cebu The University of the Philippines Cebu (; ; also referred to as UPC or UP Cebu) is a public research university and the youngest constituent university of the University of the Philippines System located in Cebu City, the capital city of Cebu pr ...

on March 20, 2016. It was aired simultaneously over TV5,

AksyonTV Aksyon TV () was a Philippine free-to-air television network. It was a joint venture of Nation Broadcasting Corporation and TV5 Network, Inc. (international operations is under its subsidiary Pilipinas Global Network Ltd.), both under PLDT medi ...

, Bloomberg TV Philippines, Radyo5 92.3 News FM and KBP-affiliated member radio stations nationwide with live streaming broadcast also made available via news5.com.ph, bilangpilipino.com and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. It was moderated by

News5 TV5 News and Information, known on-air as News5 (formerly ABC News and Public Affairs and TV5 News and Public Affairs), is the news and information programming division of the TV5 Network Inc., Philippines. News5 produces its news and info ...

chief

Luchi Cruz-Valdez Luisita "Luchi" Cruz-Valdes (born December 27, 1965) is a Filipino broadcast journalist formerly affiliated with GMA News and Public Affairs and ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. She is currently the chief of News5, the news and public affai ...

CNN Philippines CNN Philippines (abbreviated as CNN PH) is a commercial broadcast, cable and satellite television network in the Philippines. It is owned and operated by Nine Media Corporation, together with Radio Philippines Network (RPN) as the main con ...

hosted the Vice Presidential Debate on April 10, 2016. It was moderated by

Pia Hontiveros Ana Patricia Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan (born Ana Patricia Navarro Hontiveros; March 10, 1967), better known as Pia Hontiveros, is a Filipina broadcast journalist. She is the sister of Ginggay and Risa Hontiveros. She is also the cousin of the 80' ...

and

Pinky Webb Joanna Marie "Pinky" Pagaspas Webb (born June 11, 1970) is a Filipina broadcast journalist currently working for CNN Philippines. She is the daughter of Freddie Webb and a sister of Jason and Hubert Webb. Education She attended high school at ...

. The debate was held at the Quadricentennial Pavillion of the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Migue ...

. The third and last leg of debates was held on April 24 at the Student Plaza,

University of Pangasinan The PHINMA – University of Pangasinan, also known as UPang, is a private and non-sectarian university located at Dagupan, Pangasinan, Philippines. It is a member of the PHINMA Education Network (PEN). It offers practically all undergraduate ...

Dagupan Dagupan, officially the City of Dagupan ( pag, Siyudad na Dagupan, ilo, Siudad ti Dagupan, fil, Lungsod ng Dagupan), is a 2nd class independent component city in the Ilocos Region, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populati ...

. It aired simultaneously in SD and HD over

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company unde ...

ABS-CBN News Channel ABS-CBN News Channel, commonly known as ANC, is a 24/7 Philippine pay television news channel. It was launched in 1996 as the first all-news network in English language. The majority of its programs are produced by ABS-CBN News. The channel is ...

and SD over

ABS-CBN Sports and Action ABS-CBN Sports and Action (stylized as ABS-CBN Sports+Action or simply S+A or S and A), was a free-to-air television network based in Quezon City. It was owned by ABS-CBN Corporation with some of its programs produced and licensed by ABS-CBN S ...

, DZMM Radyo Patrol 630/ TeleRadyo, ABS-CBN Regional stations,

The Filipino Channel The Filipino Channel, commonly known as TFC, is a 24-hour global subscription television network based in Daly City, California with studios in Redwood City, California and offices in Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, UAE, Ethi ...

(for international viewers) and KBP-affiliated member radio stations nationwide. Live streaming was also made available via news.abs-cbn.com, tfc.tv (for international viewers), mb.com.ph,

iWant TV iWantTFC is a Filipino over-the-top content platform and production company owned and operated by ABS-CBN Digital Media, a division of ABS-CBN Corporation, formed in 2020 through the merger of two streaming services iWant and TFC Online. In ad ...

Sky On Demand Sky On Demand was a video on demand service exclusively available to Sky subscribers in the Philippines. It was owned and operated by Sky Cable Corporation, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN. It allowed users who were subscribed to either Sky Cable, Sky ...

(for

SkyCable Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of ...

and

Destiny Cable Destiny Cable (formerly Global Destiny Cable and stylized as DESTINY CABLE) was a direct-to-home cable television subscription service based in Quezon City. Destiny Cable was the 2nd largest cable TV provider in the Philippines. It was owned b ...

postpaid subscribers) and ABS-CBN News official YouTube channel. The Luzon leg was moderated by veteran anchors,

Karen Davila Kristine Karen Lising Davila-Sta. Ana (; born November 21, 1970), professionally known as Karen Davila, is a Filipino journalist. Early life Davila went to high school at the Colegio San Agustin – Makati. She took a degree of Bachelor of ...

and Tony Velasquez.

Ratings

The table below shows the recorded ratings of the debates according to market research firms, Kantar Media and AGB Nielsen for Nationwide and Mega Manila TV ratings consecutively.

Summary

Criticisms

Debate proper

The conduct of the debate was subjected to several criticisms. In the first leg of the debates,

was criticized for the number of commercials played with reports showing that 35.6% (48 out of 135 minutes) were dedicated to commercials. Meanwhile, the second leg of the debate was criticized for the lack of professionalism with candidates resorting to bickering and petty fights instead of analyzing relevant issues in the country. Finally, the third leg, hosted by

was criticized for the amount of political ads played during this leg.

Availability on online media platforms

On February 19, 2016,

Rappler Rappler (portmanteau of the words "rap" and "ripple") is a Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa along with a group of fellow Filipino journali ...

sued COMELEC chairman Andres Bautista for “granting exclusive broadcasting and livestreaming rights to handpicked media partners" before the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, not allowing online media to live stream the events. Rappler asked the high court to intervene to allow the debates to be streamed by more than one outlet. The social service claimed that the memorandum of understanding excluded online media from covering and streaming the debate; Bautista countered, stating that Rappler was being unprofessional and that they should have read the contract they signed. Rappler countered by saying it had raised the issues with Bautista and signed the agreement, believing in good faith that COMELEC would resolve the issues. Rappler's lawyer, JJ Disini, said the process for selecting media outlets could have been more transparent; he also expressed concern that the state-owned

People's Television Network People's Television Network ( fil, Telebisyon ng Bayan; abbreviated PTV) is the flagship state broadcaster owned by the Government of the Philippines. Founded in 1974, PTV is the main brand of People's Television Network, Inc. (PTNI), one of th ...

was excluded from the agreement.

Note

References

External links

* {{PhilippinePresElections 2016 Philippine television series debuts 2016 Philippine television series endings Philippine television specials Filipino-language television shows 2016 in the Philippines Simulcasts