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

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 b in a tuxedo top that just wants to serve you fried chicken and spaghetti what do we have that compares to that terrifyingly large child hamburger joker hello mr police i gave you all the clues please the winner here is clear 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 away with words why do you have to you know with us god damn it yes again i repeat it you now 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 catholic to call the pope a son of a that is a big deal imagine if joe biden publicly told dolly parton to go 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 five 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 one he replied just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you're a son of a holy 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 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 one 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 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 it was actually pretty likely to win who has an even more alarming last name a front-runner 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 it's true the son of a guy who terrorized the philippines for years is now the front runner 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 was called bin laden's froyo delights i will say 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's gigantic shoe collection that wasn't just a fun personality quirk it was a sign of the staggering scale of the marcos's 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 bongbong 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 this is not yours this is from the people 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 stolen so if you are wondering how on earth it is possible for the son of the philippines most notorious leaders 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 us and the philippines and none of it reflects particularly well on us to give you just a quick rundown first the us 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 but the story of the mark that hurts didn't it and it should have done but the story of the marcos 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 two thousand dollars 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 okay hold on hold on i do have some questions there first what do you mean forced an airplane did imelda storm the cockpit 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 was no need to introduce aged couches into the equation there but as the marcos has 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 two dollars a day and while again bongbong is not innately responsible for the actions of his father he very much benefited from that spending spree the marcos is lavished money on their children including this birthday party for their daughter [Applause] extravagant parties on the presidential yacht decadent by the standards of this catholic nation ferdinand junior nicknamed bongbong governor of the family's home province is the man in the flashing bow tie what did i just watch there 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 bongbong 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 marcos 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 seven million dollars in cash and gems and 24 bars of solid gold engraved to my husband on our 24th anniversary which is not remotely romantic that anniversary present is the pilfering billionaire equivalent of handing your spouse an envelope of cash labelled 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 wow including the former first lady's 10-foot wide bed that's why a lot of people here in the philippines are disturbing as far as rey is concerned the marcoses belong in jail he can come back here in the philippines to face what they 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 the majesty of versailles in the 18th century the revolution was right around the corner hold on they have four gold-plated pipe organs yeah these 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 marcos is fighting them the whole way they've only retrieved about 5 billion or around half of what was estimated to have been stolen this is actually something that bong bong was directly asked about when he ran for vice president six years ago and his response back then was pretty infuriating apology i cannot give what i do not have i do not have what you are i do not have control i do not have any knowledge of any of the thing 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 bongbong is somehow the biggest baby in this story and it also contains this guy 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 hello [Music] [Music] wow that is a stark rewriting of a terrible period and i do realize that the us isn't exactly perfect here either 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 wrote 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 tick tock 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 all that it was earned for being a fantastic lawyer there's also this one suggestion that marcos at one point gave breads to a young michael jordan it seems to have originated as a joke but has since been passed around completely seriously and let's just break this story down 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 was only one place that you're going and that's wilmington north carolina 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 going to 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've 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 bongbong's main rival lenny 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 robredo is negative while any disinformation about bongbong overwhelmingly puts him in a positive light but maybe the most fantastical lie that bongbong's campaign has told is actually the most mundane one 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 six months ago he wasn't yet sure what to do with no party no and then one day we're watching ant-man in the room and then he looks we love marvel movies and then he looked at me and he goes okay we're gonna do this he told me i said do what run for the presidency no way that did not happen i am calling total on the idea that bongbong 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 bon bon 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 marcos have refused to pay a tax bill that reportedly amounts to 3.9 billion dollars including penalties so bongbong 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 of course he likes ant-man 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 bong bong massively in the polls lenny robredo has inspired huge rallies there and walt walden bellow who is running against sarah duterte for vice president has been outspoken about just how outrageous he finds all of this marcos has created a big public relations machinery a social media to convince people try to convince people that that the 14 years of martial lawn that the collective nightmarian uh he's trying to use social media and you know his hundreds of trolls to say my god golden years rouyan 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 you marcos yeah well put very well and the thing is the thing is there it's clear no matter how hard you try to reinvent yourself there is always going to 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 and violence and genocide hey mark i think meta's really started to catch on just give it a few more weeks maybe you're doing great buddy people are really pumped for this 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 one do they want to believe the one where ferdinand marcos wreaked havoc on a country and its people under martial law or the one 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 maraming salamatpo and to you let me just say this i do get well you'll 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 bongbong 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 going to need these people and others like them to continue bravely speaking out and telling the likes of bon bon marcos if i may use the poetic words of the philippines current president you you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 5,223,042

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Id: FtdVglihDok

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Sun May 08 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/MalikVonLuzon]

I'm from the Philippines and finished voting just this morning. I voted for both Leni Robredo and Walden Bello, who were featured in this video. Even though Leni's VP Pick is someone else (Kiko Pangilinan), Presidents and Vice Presidents are elected separately. This is why Leni Robredo is the VP under the Duterte Administration despite being from a completely different party.

There is definitely something different in the air this year as compared to the 2016 Election. For once, I see the youth organizing and becoming politically active that I have not felt in 2016. It is the one thing that gives me hope for this election. Should it go sideways though, it will not be the end of our journey, but we will do our best to improve our country step by step.

[u/Sisiwakanamaru]

I can't believe a son of a dictator inspired to run for president after watching Ant-Man (2015).

[u/h0twired]

Mirror for non-US?

[u/jestarcarbar]

before Marcos came into power ... the philippines was actually better off than South Korea

that sounds totally crazy right?

[u/SenorNoobnerd]

Even during 2010 and before the rise of fake news in social media while Marcos was running for the senate, there has always been a cult mentality over the Marcoses here in the Philippines.

Some people believed that Martial Law wasn't as worse as it was in Manila compared to the rural part of the Philippines because they believed that Manila was too liberal and not as disciplined as the poor rural folks. Sadly, that mentality of being dominated is still strong that some believe they'd rather be a province of Spain, the US or eventually, China.

[u/jpatricks1]

Oh and Nutribun (the bread Marcos gave to Michael Jordan) was actually a USAid project to fight malnutrition in the Philippines. A lot of Filipinos to this day think it came from the Marcoses

[u/gnonymous]

As of May 10 1:36AM (pht), the dictator's son is leading the race by A LOT 🥲

[u/SunshineSpeckle]

Unfortunately I can’t vote but thankfully majority of my family who still live there are strongly opposed to him and are voting Leni. My mom shared stories of a teacher at her school and an uncle who disappeared without a trace during martial law. They were outspoken in being against Marcos. Scary stuff.

Another crazy thing is in 2016, they moved Ferdinand Marcos’ remains from Hawaii to Philippines in the “Libingan ng mga Bayani” which means “cemetery of heroes.”

How the family was allowed back, allowed to even run for office, is beyond me.

[u/victinibel]

I can’t vote (I’m Canadian and my mom was also born here and never claimed her citizenship, and my dad isn’t Filipino) but I’m praying some miracle happens and Leno Robredo wins.