MANILA, Philippines — Edrian Santollano is used to the heckling.
On a sweltering afternoon last week in the Philippine capital, he and more than 30 other volunteers had fanned out into the slum area of Baseco to knock on doors for Vice President Leni Robredo, a candidate in Monday’s presidential election.
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As the volunteers — clad in pink, the color associated with Robredo’s campaign — made their way through the streets, children mockingly chanted “BBM, BBM, BBM,” a reference to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the former senator and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, who leads Robredo and eight other presidential candidates in the polls. The “pink warriors” shrugged off the taunts and moved on.
“We have converted a lot of people already, and we will not continue doing the house-to-house campaign if we don’t believe there is hope for people to change,” said Santollano, 24, a freelance graphic designer. “We know people start thinking after we speak with them.”
The Philippines, a U.S. ally and one of the only democracies in Southeast Asia, is facing what political observers say is its most consequential presidential election in decades. Marcos’ candidacy has turned it into a referendum on the legacy of his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who fled to the United States with his family and billions of dollars in public funds in 1986 after he was deposed in a popular revolution. The younger Marcos’ biggest challenge has come from Robredo, whose grassroots, volunteer-based campaign, experts say, is transforming Philippine politics.
The Marcos dictatorship, which included nine years of martial law, was marked by corruption and widespread human rights abuses. The family was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1992, three years after the elder Marcos had died, and quickly re-entered politics. The younger Marcos, 64, and his mother, the former first lady Imelda Marcos, face arrest in the U.S. because of a $353 million contempt judgment in a class-action over the late dictator’s abuses, although Marcos has said that would not affect his policy toward Washington.
A Marcos victory in the presidential race would be the capstone on his family’s 30-year effort to regain its legitimacy, and it appears to be within reach. A Pulse Asia survey last month found that 56 percent of respondents supported Marcos, with Robredo running a distant second at 23 percent.
Poll numbers haven’t dampened enthusiasm at Robredo’s campaign rallies, where huge crowds wait for hours in the sun or rain to hear her speak. They bring food and drinks not just for themselves but for other “kakampinks,” a nickname for Robredo’s supporters, which comes from the Tagalog word for “ally.”
Robredo, 57, is an economist and former lawyer who entered politics after her politician husband, Jesse Robredo, died in a plane crash in 2012. But Robredo, who is running as an independent, is still perceived as an outsider, because she doesn’t come from one of the political dynasties that have dominated the Philippines for decades.
Aries Arugay, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, described Robredo’s campaign as “phenomenal.”
“People are printing their own shirts, printing their own paraphernalia, hosting their own events,” said Arugay, who is based in Manila. “You might go to a mall, a typical mall here, and then you’ll be surprised that there are maybe 100 people in pink just walking around the mall.”
Looming over the election is President Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power on a populist wave in 2016 and has been criticized internationally over his strongman style and deadly anti-drug campaign. Analysts say he has been a strong supporter of the Marcos family while sidelining and belittling Robredo as his vice president. His daughter Sara is running for vice president in an alliance with Marcos, although the positions are elected separately.
Jean Encinas Franco, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, said Duterte had paved the way for another Marcos presidency, noting that one of his first acts as president was to have Ferdinand Marcos Sr. buried in the national Heroes’ Cemetery.
“It’s the final erasure to what we know about the history of martial law and what really happened,” she said.
