AD LIB.

Byline: Greg B. Macabenta

If the voters will be better prepared to make intelligent choices in the coming national elections, we will have the TV networks to thank. The series of debates and forums organized by the networks, particularly ABS- CBN and GMA, are an invaluable service to the country.

Participated in by several presidential candidates, the public affairs telecasts may still leave a few things to be desired in the way questions are asked and the way roundabout non-answers are allowed to pass unchallenged. But they have begun to succeed in exposing the pimples and sores of some of the candidates, as well as the promising qualities of others.

What the TV audiences have been seeing are candidates taking pains to explain how they intend to manage the affairs of the country and address its myriad problems. The candidates have not had a chance to use their singing talents or their oratorical prowess to win over prospective voters, and the only one who has gotten away with wisecracks has been Erap Estrada. Deprived of the cookie-cutter gimmicks for winning an election, the candidates have found themselves …