“Some call it a circus, I actually call it a fiesta. It’s going to be very interesting, with lots of twists and turns.”

So says Tony la Vina, Dean of the Ateneo School of Government in The Philippines. He's talking about next year's Presidential Election which so far has three front runners - the son of a dictator, a homophobic boxing legend, and a former actor who happens to be the present Mayor of Manila. Front runner is the lady who has failed to declare her candidacy, the daughter of the current President Duterte. She can still decide to become a last minute candidate, the same as her father did last time.

The son of the murdering dictator Marcos is also named Ferdinand but goes by the nickname Bongbong (how many does he 'bong' I wonder??) He studied at Oxford University but failed to get a degree. With his family still immensely powerful, he has risen through the political heirarchy. He targets younger voters who have little  knowledge of the crimes committed under his father's rule. He is a supporter of Duterte. This may have something to do with the fact that Duterte, as his predecessors had not, permitted his father's body to be given a hero's burial.

The boxer, Manny Pacquiao, is as near an icon as you can get in the country. An evangelical Christian, he is against divorce, abortion and famously claimed that people in same sex relationships were "worse than animals". A defender of Duterte he even claimed that Duterte was anointed by God! If he is elected, I wonder what sort of civl rights monster he will turn out to be! 

The Mayor of Manila has a much less prominent persona. Born into a poor family, he is known for having launched a clean up Manila campaign. He is also anti-Duterte and said he is in favour of the International Criminal Court investigating his war on drugs which allegedly killed as many as 30,000.

Perhaps the one serious candidate should be the present Vice President and former human rights lawyer Leni Robredo. She has also been very anti Duterte and especially of his cosying up to China. She is the daughter of a judge and an English Professor who previously worked for NGOs providing legal assistance to marginalised groups. But with the Filipino people as a whole in love with stars and personalities, the chances of her winning the election are surely small. Sadly! 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/19/some-call-it-a-circus-ictators-son-boxing-icon-and-former-actor-vie-to-lead-philippines

Sara Duterte is a mystery really, she has so far turned down all attemps of her fathers party to join them and run for president, she is a member of an opposing party. She has also nominated and confirmed that she is running for a 3rd term as mayor of Davao and has said several times she is running for mayor, she even apologized to some people that she couldn't turn her back on the people of Davao by withdrawing and running for president. It's going to be very interesting time up until November 15th (deadline for replacement candidates), there will be a lot of pressure put on her to run for president and to come in as a replacement for one of the current candidates, most likely the joke candidate Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. He's the one that had a massive dummy spit when the US refused him a visa and entry (last year from memory), went crawling to his mate Duterte to take action against the US over it.