In the Philippines, Filipinos are faced with a critical juncture in their history as the son of the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., is currently leading the Philippine presidential polls against top incumbent opposition bet Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo ahead of a historical May 9 election day.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a former Philippine senator who had disappeared from the public eye following his Vice-Presidential loss to Robredo in 2016, is now gunning for the seat of power in Manila to avenge his father. His critics claim that the Marcos campaign marks decades’ worth of authoritarian nostalgia, a frustration with democratic ideals and processes, and a massive disinformation campaign had led the Marcos scion to potentially revise history and clear his family name of their criminal past.

The Philippines is the oldest democracy in Asia, a form of government inherited from the Americans. In fact, many would say that democracy and freedom are the most important things the Americans taught Filipinos.

Former President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon (center) at the Manila International Airport with Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and their children Irene, Bongbong (Marcos Jr.), and Imee (White House Photo Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Nixon_with_the_Marcos_family.png
Former President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon (center) at the Manila International Airport with Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and their children Irene, Bongbong (Marcos Jr.), and Imee (White House Photo Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Despite this, political scientists consider the Philippine brand of democracy as one of the most underdeveloped ones in the world despite its age, having been ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. It ranks 117th out of 180 countries in the organization’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, scoring a measly 33 out of 100 as a result of the Duterte Administration’s cronyism.