Former Senator Ferdinand'' Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. said he would rather talk to the local leaders than attend presidential debates which showcase the same questions.

Marcos, who is leading the pre-election presidential surveys, said unlike before there are too many debates and the questions are just the same.

"If there is a way that the debate will be actually productive, constructive that we can talk about policy we can argue, we can debate as a proper debate then fine I would go. But if your going to repeat and repeat and repeat the same thing. I'd rather campaign," he said in a forum in Manila on Wednesday.

"If you're going to ask me, if it is more important to talk with the local leader and sectoral leaders to ask what they need and their worries, what they are thinking, is that is more important than debate? I said, yes it is," he added.

His older sister, Senator Imee Marcos, had advised him to attend the important debates.

Marcos' spokesman, Vic Rodriguez, had informed the Commission on Elections it would not attend its debate this weekend.

The son of the late strongman has not attend major presidential interviews on TV and a debate at UST. But he showed up at broadcast network presidental forum.

Marcos has a sizeable lead of 45 percentage points over Vice President Leni Robredo in the February Pulse Asia survey.

Marcos said their team is running out of time to campaign because his headquaters was locked for three weeks in January due to COVID-19/

"We lost 21 days of campaigning in January so right now we are trying catch up in our schedule. We are trying to catch up from what we missed for 21 days, We were supposed to go out last January 3, but because of Omicron (subvariant of COVID-19) we cannot go out for a few days. Everybody was sick that is why we are now trying to catch up," he said. Robina Asido/DMS