@re-joyce 11 April 2026

Look, the reason presidential debates in 2022 were such a big deal and why skipping them matters so much in a crisis like the one we're seeing today in 2026 is that they act as a stress test for a leader’s brain. In 2022, our current president skipped every COMELEC-sanctioned presidential debate. Bongbong skipped the first COMELEC PiliPinas Debate on March 19, 2022, leaving an empty podium. He was absent from the second COMELEC debate on April 3, 2022. He declined CNN Philippines debate in February 2022. While he attended the SMNI forum on February 15, 2022, against Ka Leody, it was not a multi-candidate presidential debate. When Bongbong Marcos opted out of those debates in 2022, he avoided the only real chance the public had to see him think on his feet. Because in a debate, you can’t hide behind a polished social media team or a pre-recorded video. You have to show how you handle pressure, how you grasp complex data, and how you’d react when things go south. Fast forward to today, with diesel hitting ₱150 a liter and the country in a State of National Energy Emergency, that lack of vetting is really starting to show. Because our president never debates, we never got to hear a concrete, cross-examined plan for energy security. Instead of a proactive strategy that was hashed out and challenged years ago, we’re stuck today with a government response that feels slow and reactive. The war erupted in February 28. Days later, experts were already warning of a looming global oil shock. Yet today, we’re essentially watching the administration still learning how to handle a global oil shock in real-time, which is a dangerous place for a country that imports almost all its fuel. Sure there are small successes such as giving the initial tranch of ayuda to our jeepney and delivery drivers, passing and signing of the law that will cut the excise tax, securing oil from other sources such as Russia, and scoring a diplomatic victory via safe passage for Philippine-bound ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Yet we have yet to see a concrete, cohesive, all-hands-on-deck, proactive response from the government and people’s patience and wallets are thinning out day by day. See, debates force a candidate to go on the record with specific promises. If a candidate in 2022 had been pinned down on how they’d expand the strategic oil reserve or handle a Middle East supply cut, we’d have a yardstick to measure them by right now. Without that public record, it's much harder to hold a leader’s feet to the fire. You can’t point back and say, "You promised X, but you’re doing Y," because they never had to promise anything specific in the first place. Ultimately, skipping debates leaves the electorate in the dark about a leader's mental agility. Managing an oil crisis isn't just about signing papers. It’s about making split-second decisions that affect the price of food and transport for millions. By bypassing debates, a candidate is basically asking for a "blank check" of trust without proving they can handle the heat. As we’re seeing in 2026, when that check finally gets cashed during a national emergency, the cost of not knowing a leader’s true capabilities becomes incredibly high for every Filipino.