- The main story focuses on the Philippines and its current leader, Rodrigo Duterte, known for his controversial language and actions.
- Duterte's war on drugs has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and triggered an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
- Duterte has also targeted his critics, including a senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and her news website, Rappler.
- The Philippines ranks among the top 10 deadliest countries for journalists, with many being killed under Duterte's regime.
- Elections are happening in the Philippines, with Duterte's daughter running for vice president and Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator, as a frontrunner for president.
- The Marcos family, known for their corruption and lavish spending, ruled the Philippines under martial law and were forced to flee in 1986.
- The average Filipino suffered under the Marcos regime, while the family enjoyed extravagant parties and mismanaged the country's economy.
- The Marcoses fled with stolen wealth, leaving behind a shocked population who realized the extent of their robbery.

- The Philippines is facing a potential election of Bongbong Marcos, son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
- The Marcos family is notorious for their corruption and human rights abuses during their rule.
- The rewriting of history and the spread of misinformation on the internet has contributed to the Marcos family's resurgence in popularity.
- Bongbong Marcos has faced little accountability for his family's actions and has shown no remorse.
- Opposition figures like Leni Robredo and Walden Bello are rallying against the return of the Marcoses to power.
- The Philippines is at a crossroads, with the choice between acknowledging the past or repeating it.

- The Philippines needs people who are willing to speak out against corruption and violence
- This is necessary to prevent a continuation of the problems experienced over the past 50 years
- The speaker encourages these individuals to bravely confront figures like Bonbon Marcos
- The speaker concludes by expressing gratitude and using explicit language to criticize the current president.

- The text discusses the controversial leader Rodrigo Duterte and his actions in the Philippines.
- Duterte's war on drugs has resulted in numerous deaths and an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
- Duterte has targeted critics, including a senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and her news website.
- The Philippines ranks as one of the deadliest countries for journalists under Duterte's regime.
- Elections are taking place in the Philippines, with Duterte's daughter running for vice president and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a frontrunner for president.
- The Marcos family, known for corruption, ruled the Philippines under martial law and fled in 1986, leaving behind a shocked population.
- Bongbong Marcos, son of the former dictator, is facing little accountability for his family's actions and is gaining popularity.
- Opposition figures are rallying against the return of the Marcos family to power.
- The Philippines is at a critical point, with the choice between acknowledging the past or repeating it.
- It is crucial for individuals to speak out against corruption and violence to prevent a continuation of the country's problems.
- The speaker expresses gratitude but criticizes the current president.

John Oliver discusses the current presidential election in The Philippines and why Bongbong Marcos is – albeit in a very limited and unflattering way – sort of like Ant-Man.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ ♪♪ Our main story tonight concerns the Philippines.

It's the country that gave us, among other things, Bruno Mars, Olivia Rodrigo, and Jollibee, the single greatest fast food mascot of all time.

He's a six-foot-five bee in a tuxedo top that just wants to serve you fried chicken and spaghetti.

Terrifyingly large child, hamburger joker, hello, Mr.

Police, I gave you all the clues, please.

We've discussed the Philippines on this show before, mostly thanks to their current leader and self-proclaimed dictator, Rodrigo Duterte, who has, if nothing else, a way with words.

Gusto ko tawagan, oh, potang, inaka umuwi ka naw.

Why do you have to, you know, fuck with us, God damn it?

I know that is a striking amount of swearing, but you also cannot understate just how brazen it is for the president of the Philippines, a nation over 80 percent Catholic, to call the Pope a son of a whore.

Imagine if Joe Biden publicly told Dolly Parton to go fuck herself.

Forget backlash, he'd be dragged from the White House by his feet, and rightly so.

And while Duterte's language may have been shocking, his actions have been far worse, especially his war on drugs.

It's estimated that on his watch, government officials or vigilantes have killed up to 30,000 people in violence which even triggered the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into possible crimes against humanity.

And Duterte has viciously targeted his critics.

This senator, who launched an investigation into his drug war, has been languishing in jail for the last 5 years.

And Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and her news website, Rappler, have been buried in legal actions, facing at least 11 cases and 10 arrest warrants since Duterte came into office.

And the thing is, that's just the beginning.

The Philippines consistently ranks among the top 10 deadliest countries for journalists.

Reports say as many as 19 of them have been killed since Duterte took office.

At News of 1, he replied, just because you're a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you're a son of

That speaks not only to his brutality, but also to the incredible bravery of journalists there.

Because the possibility of assassination is the kind of thing that can thin out a workforce.

If Michael's jobs listing said, applicants must have some familiarity with candle making and scrapbooking.

Also, please note, employees are not exempted from assassination if they're sons of bitches.

I don't think anyone would work at Michael's anymore.

Now, thankfully, Duterte's term is about to come to an end.

Presidents in the Philippines can only serve 1 six-year term, and elections are actually happening there tomorrow.

And this is a big election in every sense.

The Philippines is a nation of 100 million people, and turnout is often around 80 percent.

Although, unfortunately, there are some disconcertingly familiar faces running in this.

Duterte's own daughter, Sarah, is running for vice president, a position which is elected separately in the Philippines.

And to get just a little sense of her, here she is when she was a mayor, punching a local sheriff that she was angry with.

And it is just not great that you can look at that and fairly say, well, at least she's not as violent as her dad.

But there's also someone running for president, and who is actually pretty likely to win, who has an even more alarming last name.

A frontrunner in the current polls, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.

His father declared martial law, ruling the Philippines with a terrible human rights record until a popular uprising ousted him in 1986.

His mother, Imelda, still famous for her shoes.

The son of a guy who terrorized the Philippines for years is now the front runners to take over.

And look, I'm not saying that anyone should be judged solely on their family name.

It's just a little weird in his particular case.

It'd be like if the most popular frozen yogurt chain in the U.S.

I'm not saying a frozen Yogurt Shop cannot be called that.

I just wouldn't expect it to be a national hit.

That is, after all, why they changed it to Pinkberry.

Now, as for Imelda Marcos' gigantic shoe collection, that wasn't just a fun personality quirk.

It was a sign of the staggering scale of the Marcos' graft.

They embezzled billions of dollars from the Philippines to the point that it was once recognized by the Guinness World Records as the greatest robbery of a government.

And it is a bit weird for them to be handing out records for such a terrible thing.

It's like giving Lee Harvey Oswald an award for most JFK's shot.

But the enormity of the Marcos family's theft makes how Bong Bong has described his childhood on the campaign trail this year a little hard to swallow.

My parents would never let us forget that this is not yours.

Everything we have, all the advantages that we have gained, any successes that we have achieved, and Any comfort or privilege that we enjoy comes from the people.

Now, I will say this, that is not technically inaccurate.

The Marcos is a sort of the British Museum of Families in that most of what they have is fucking stolen.

So, if you're wondering how on Earth it is possible for the son of the Philippines' most notorious leader to now be on the brink of running the country, that is what this story is about.

And before we start, let's acknowledge there is a lot of history between the U.S.

And the Philippines, and none of it reflects particularly well on us.

To give you just a quick rundown, first, the U.S.

Bought the Philippines in 1898, then utterly brutalized them in their fight for independence in the Philippine-American War, which resulted in 200,000 casualties, then subjected them to 50 years of repressive and racist colonial rule.

And then, even after granting them their independence in 1946, continued to use the CIA to meddle in their affairs.

All in all, it was an attitude of unchecked imperialism that was, and I do not say this lightly, borderline British.

But the story of the Marcos's dynasty really begins in 1965, when Ferdinand Marcos was elected.

And while initially presenting himself as a reformer, By his second term, facing dissent, he cracked down hard, inventing or exaggerating internal threats to justify imposing martial law.

And that was a period which was, to put it very, very mildly, a bad time to be in the Philippines.

Under martial law, some 34,000 were tortured and thousands more were killed.

And all the while, the Marcoses were siphoning off money on an astonishing scale, with Imelda particularly adept at spending it.

Imelda, known as the Iron Butterfly, would become a notorious jet-setting socialite and fashion icon, amassing hundreds of millions in jewels, fine art, real estate, her travels so luxurious she once reportedly spent $2,000 on chewing gum during a layover in San Francisco.

She even forced an airplane departing Rome to make a U-turn because she forgot to buy cheese.

Hold on, because I do have some questions there.

First, What do you mean, forced an airplane?

Did the pilot say a soft prayer to see his children again, all because Imelda Marcos had a hankering for pecorino?

Also, if you forget to buy cheese in Italy, you're okay.

Filipino cuisine is perfectly delicious without it.

Anyone who has eaten a single plate of adobo knows there is no need to introduce aged cowjis into the equation there.

But as the Marcoses plundered and mismanaged the country, the average Filipino suffered badly.

The economy was in crisis, and the incomes of wage laborers declined substantially, to the point that by the end of Ferdinand's time in office, many Filipinos were surviving on less than 2 dollars a day.

And while again, Bong Bong is not innately responsible for the actions of his father, he very much benefited from that spending spree.

The Marcos' lavished money on their children, including this birthday party for their daughter.

Extravagant parties on the presidential yacht, decadent by the standards of this Catholic nation.

Ferdinand Jr., nicknamed Bong Bong, governor of the family's home province, is the man in the flashing bow tie.

I honestly don't know what's more unsettling about that, the adult baby emerging from a cake screaming, -"Mommy!" Or the fact that while Bon Bon looks very young there, he was actually a governor then.

And honestly, I would not trust a man wearing that bow tie to run anything.

I wouldn't even trust him with the job that he's dressed for there, bringing out the birthday cake at an olive garden.

Now, the Marcoses were ultimately forced to flee the country after a mass uprising in 1986, but Ferdinand held on to the billions that he stole.

The family were granted asylum in Hawaii and took a lot with them on the plane, showing up with 7000000 dollars in cash and gems, and 24 bars of solid gold engraved, -"To my husband on our 24th anniversary." -$24.

That anniversary present is the pilfering billionaire equivalent of handing your spouse an envelope of cash labeled, we have been married for 24 years as of today.

But obviously, they did have to leave some things behind, and for many in the Philippines, it was a real shock to see the sheer extent to which they'd just been robbed.

Filipinos who used to be kept blocks from the Marcos' private universe got a 20-minute kaleidoscope of unimaginable luxury.

Including the former first lady's 10-foot wide bed.

That's why a lot of people here in the Philippines are starving.

As far as Ray is concerned, the Marcoses belong in jail.

He can come back here in the Philippines to face what he do to the people of the Philippines.

Yeah, it's funny, seeing the wealth of the rulers who ripped you off does tend to put things into perspective.

It's kind of like how after French workers learned of the majesty of Versailles in the 18th century, the revolution was right around the corner.

Hold on, they have 4 gold-plated pipe organs?

Yeah, these motherfuckers are gonna have to go." Now, in the end, a government commission was set up to track down and recover the stolen money and assets.

But 36 years later, thanks to court delays and the Marcoses fighting them the whole way, they've only retrieved about 5000000000, or around half of what was estimated to have been stolen.

This is actually something that Bongbong was directly asked about when he ran for vice president 6 years ago, and his response back then was pretty infuriating.

But for me, it's the recognition of many mistakes in the past.

It's the same with the hidden wealth that we still haven't gotten.

I do not have any knowledge of any of the things.

Once again, let me repeat, I cannot give what I do not have.

Yeah, not great, but also, I will say, credit to the sign language interpreter there, who managed to get across not just what he was saying, but also really communicate his whole big, angry, crybaby vibe.

I'm just saying, it is pretty impressive that Bong-Bong is somehow the biggest baby in this story, and it also contains this fucking guy.

--LAUGHTER --And yet, despite being booed for that response, Bongbong is now on the edge of being elected president.

And that is because, over the past decade, something kind of remarkable has happened in the Philippines, and that is history has been rewritten.

Since the return of the Marcoses, there's been a trickle of new information in YouTube, in Google, that's a revision of the interpretation of martial law.

What do you read or hear about martial law, about Marcos?

The preparation of martial law makes our lives peaceful.

I also heard that the Philippines became rich

But because of the martial law, the Philippines has become peaceful and quiet.

That is a stark rewriting of a terrible period.

We grapple with our greatest monsters by putting up constant reminders of them on mountains, in town squares, and on crisp $20 bills.

And this willful distortion of history has been massively abetted by the Internet, as the Philippines frequently ranks as the most online nation in the world.

That is actually something that Duterte very much benefited from, as he rode a wave of false stories, paid trolling, and Facebook engagement all the way to the presidency.

In fact, Facebook itself even called him the undisputed king of Facebook conversations.

A title surprisingly not held by your uncle, who has some really hot takes on the vaccine he thinks that you should know about.

And the Internet is now similarly awash in Facebook posts and TikTok videos that both glorify and romanticize the Marcos family.

Popular posts on Facebook have explained away Ferdinand's ill-gotten wealth, saying that his fortune came from treasure left by a Japanese general after World War II, or that it was earned for being a fantastic lawyer.

There's also this 1, suggesting that Marcos, at 1 point, gave breads to a young Michael Jordan.

It seems to have originated as a joke, but has since been passed around completely seriously.

On December 24th, 1969, the Marcos family was in Wilmington, North Carolina, to celebrate the holidays.

That actually tracks, because if you're a billionaire from the other side of the world, and you want to celebrate the holidays in America, there is only 1 place that you're going.

Then, President Marcos was walking in a park and he saw a skinny child begging for food.

He gave him a whole box of Nutribun and said, bring this with you, child.

Someday you will grow up to be someone important.

So, to be clear, in this story, President Marcos was walking through a park, holding bread, specifically Nutribun, a bread mainly sold in the Philippines, meaning Marcos flew to the United States with Nutribun, because he was like, what if we get to Wilmington, North Carolina, my favorite holiday destination, and they don't have any bread there.

Then, he went to the park and passed, like, 10 other kids, thinking, none of you are gonna grow up to be important, so you're not getting any of my park bread.

Then he saw Michael Jordan and was like, wait, I'm pretty sure that you are gonna be important.

So here, have this bread that I brought with me from the other side of the world." And then, that kid grew up to be Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who ever lived.

That is the single dumbest story involving a young Michael Jordan I have ever heard, and I have seen Space Jam.

-♪ ♪ -♪ So, that is just a taste of the online nonsense which is successfully reframing the Marcos family history.

And at the same time, Bong Bong's main rival, Leni Robredo, the current vice president and the woman that you saw challenging him in that debate clip earlier, has faced vicious attacks online, ranging from false allegations that she has ties to armed communist rebels, to phony rumors that she murdered her husband.

In fact, fact-checkers have reported that almost all the disinformation about Robb Redo is negative, while any disinformation about Bonbon overwhelmingly puts him in a positive light.

But maybe the most fantastical lie that Bonbon's campaign has told is actually the most mundane 1.

That he is not the scion of a political crime family.

He's just a regular, ordinary citizen who just happens to be running for president.

In fact, here is how his wife described the exact moment that he decided to run.

You know, 6 months ago, he wasn't yet sure what to do.

And then 1 day we're watching Ant-Man in the room.

And then he looked, because we love Marvel movies, and then he looked at me and he goes, okay, we're gonna do this.

I am calling total bullshit on the idea that Bong Bong decided to run for president out of nowhere, mid-Marvel film.

Mainly because I can think of a much more salient reason that he'd want to run.

As president, Bong Bong would hold sway over the commission devoted to investigating and recovering his family's wealth, as well as the tax office, which would be particularly useful for him, as the Marcoses have refused to pay a tax bill that reportedly amounts to 3.9 billion dollars, including penalty.

So, Bong Bong could easily tell his own administration to just forget about his massive debt, which is clearly a very appealing idea for him.

In fact, when you think of it, Ant-Man could actually be the perfect movie to inspire him to run for president, given that it's about a thief whose questionable past is forgotten after he rises to power using resources that he also stole.

--LAUGHTER --But I will say, Bong Bong's brand relaunch has not worked on absolutely everyone.

Plenty of Filipinos are still opposed to him and to having the Marcos era rewritten in front of their very eyes.

Despite trailing Bongbong massively in the polls, Lenny Rabredo has inspired huge rallies there.

And Walden Bello, who is running against Sergio Duterte for vice president, has been outspoken about just how outrageous he finds all of this.

Marcos has created a big public relations machinery, social media, to convince people...

Try to convince people that the 14 years of martial law, not the collective nightmare, Jan.

He's trying to use social media and, you know, trolls, yeah, his hundreds of trolls to say, my God, golden years, Raul, this is a family that has raped the country.

It has not apologized to the country, okay?

And he now wants to rape the country again.

And the thing is, The thing is there, it's clear, no matter how hard you try to reinvent yourself, there is always gonna be at least some people who remember who you really are.

Whether you're a new college freshman trying on a British accent, or a massive tech oligarchy trying to paper over its complicity in violence and genocide.

Hey, Mark, I think META's really starting to catch on.

Look, it has been truly amazing to see the Philippines election unfold, because in this election, They're not just voting on their future, they're voting on their past.

Specifically, which 1 do they want to believe?

The 1 where Ferdinand Marcos wreaked havoc on a country and its people under martial law, or the 1 where he was somehow the greatest NBA scout of all time.

And I know that most people watching this are not eligible to vote in it, although if you are, and you are watching, kumusta, maraming salamat po.

And to you, let me just say this, I do get why you'd be skeptical about a breakdown of your politics from someone with what I can only describe as big colonizer energy, and...

Who lives in a country that is, frankly, no stranger to dishonest billionaires who propel themselves to power with Facebook lies.

So look, don't listen to me, but maybe do listen to your fellow citizens who both remember the past and are determined not to repeat it.

Because Bonbon Marcos has shown virtually no remorse for what his father put the country through.

And if the Philippines is to avoid more of the same graft and violence that they've experienced over the past 50 years, they're gonna need these people and others like them to continue bravely speaking out and telling the likes of Bonbon Marcos, if I may use the poetic words of the Philippines' current arsehole president, fuck you!

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Philippines Election: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)