Comelec Cancels Presidential, VP Town Hall Debates; Partners With KBP with New Format

The Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) presidential and vice-presidential town hall debates have been officially canceled, after initially being only a postponement to quickly being an eleventh-hour attempt to salvage the event, amid a debt situation involving Comelec’s production partner.

Comelec opted to partner with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) to hold a candidates’ taped forum instead of a town hall debate, to be aired from May 2 to May 6, in which each candidate will be entitled to a one-hour interview.

Moreover, the taped event will also steer away from being a town hall debate to a panel interview format, as the Comelec will now adopt a “Single Candidate/Team – Panel Interview Format,” the advisory from Garcia read.

“The Commission on Elections, in partnership with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, has announced that the concluding event of the PiliPinas Debates 2022 Series will no longer be Vice-Presidential and Presidential Town Hall Debates,” according to an advisory from Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia.

This latest development comes after reports saying that Impact Hub Manila, Comelec’s production partner, failed to settle their PHP14 million balance with their venue partner Sofitel Garden Plaza.

Additional reports said that Impact Hub Manila’s failure to pay the amount to Sofitel Garden Plaza was due to bouncing checks.
This prompted Sofitel Garden Plaza, a five-star hotel located in Pasay, to threaten to back out as the debate venue partner following the PHP14 million debt.

Impact Hub Manila broke the silence and downplayed the fiasco Saturday, April 23, in a statement that said Impact Hub Manila and Sofitel Garden Plaza encountered “some misunderstandings,”

Impact Hub Manila also added that reports as to the cause of the miscommunication are “incomplete.”

The production company further said that they will refrain from publicly divulging the matters and will opt to discuss the issue with Sofitel Garden Plaza and other stakeholders privately.

Despite the falling out between Impact Hub Manila and Sofitel Garden Plaza, a Comelec statement said that the change of format was due to the “inevitable scheduling conflicts as the candidates approach the homestretch of the campaign period.”

The last event of what was supposed to be the PiliPinas Debates 2022 was originally slated to air on April 23 and 24, in a town hall debate format in which the audience could directly ask questions to the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. (GFB)