A "pissed off" Walden Bello urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to impose stronger penalties against the tandem Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Sara Duterte for skipping the debates organized by the poll body.

Bello, who is running for vice president, slammed COMELEC and called the vice presidential debate on Sunday night a "big joke."

"This is becoming a big joke," he said. "Sara Duterte is not with us. We're slashing one another for her benefit, I mean, the Commission on Election should do something about this."

"This is so undemocratic that they're not here. I'm tempted to walk out right now, you know, because we're making fools of ourselves without this person who's just clapping up there."

"'Yung ginagawa ninyog penalty yung hindi sasama sa e-rally. My God, ang hina po noon, we need stronger penalties for these people," he said.

(Your enforced penalty of excluding them from e-rally. My God, that’s weak. We need stronger penalties for these people.)

"Mr. Chair, can you answer this? We need your answer. You're the Commission on Elections, you can penalize these two jokers, Marcos and Duterte, for not showing up. They are spitting in the face of the Filipino people, can you say something right now? Tell them to show up."

"I'm really so pissed off that these two jokers are not here," he said. "We can't show their records, they have to show up so that the Filipino people can judge otherwise this is a fucking big joke."

Bello also took a swipe the Marcos family's P203-billion tax liabilities, saying that it should be the "huge penalty" for not attending the debate.

"We need to get something from these people to penalize them, like a … huge penalty, like P203 billion. That's what's needed at this point," he said.

Marcos and Duterte previously said that they will be skipping the COMELEC-organized debates, saying that they would rather be on the ground talking to people.

COMELEC has penalized the pair by barring them from using COMELEC's e-rally platforms.