power plant, which will show how we will deliver electricity. and after that, of course, it's for society to pick it up and use fusion energy. it's clean and safe, it's abundant. this is there, is it safe, inherently? because there's nothing that can go wrong in principle that would require any n oh, measures should be taken for the public. so if one does something wrong, the plasma just shuts down itself and there is absolutely no danger. ah, logan of elizabeth bronman door hall with a headlines on al jazeera ukraine says it won't accept any ultimatums to diffuse the tension with russia. foreign minister, demitra calibus. his talks with western leaders are helping to lo attention, but moscow. natasha butler has more from care. dmitri labor or giving a press conference sir here in kiev, and he went over

a couple of points. really. he said, 1st of all, in terms of the situation along caves along ukraine's border, he said that it was calm. it was quiet despite the buildup of russian troops there . and that i caused some of the comments he made earlier today in which he said, look, the situation is still very tense, but it is under control. he said he also welcomed a recent diplomatic efforts by various a western leaders. he said that those efforts had really helped to reduce tensions security forces and saddam have arrested a formal government minister and outspoken critic of last years military take over . the sudanese congress parties has colored almighty use of was detained because of his role and the now disbanded committee to dismantle the former ruling party. uganda has been ordered to pay $325000000.00 to democratic republic of congo. the d r c was seeking 11000000000 dollars for its economic loss from fighting around 20

years ago and to compensate victims. the ruling why the international court of justice is final and can't be appealed. schools in india's karnataka state have been ordered to close for 3 days because of anger over a ban on muslim students wearing head scarves. the opposition is accusing the ruling. b j. p of discrimination. senegal has signed a deal with a european union to buy millions of doses of corona, virus vaccines that will be produced in a purpose build factory outside the capital, decker, and distributed across west africa. one of the busiest border crossings between the u. s. and canada has now partially, viola attend was blocked by a conway of truck as fighting vaccine mandates. the ambassador bridge carries 25 percent of all trade between the 2 countries. with the headlines on al jazeera and side stories, faxed. ah,

could a dictator, son become the next president of the philippines? ferdinand marco's junior emerges as the front runner to replace rodrigo detected. so, what does the election tell us about the state of philippine politics today? this is inside story. ah. hello and welcome to the program. i'm how much am jerome? campaigning has officially begun for the philippine elections. inmate $67000000.00 voters are set to choose their representatives for congress and local government including governors and city mayors. but it's the race for president that

attracting the most attention candidates are vying to replace rodrigo to tear to the philippines has held a presidential election every 6 years since 1986. when the revolution toppled, the dictator ferdinand marcus his son, ferdinand marco's junior as emerged as front runner. other contenders include a vocal detected critic, a former movie star, and a champion boxer jamila alan de gunn, has more from manila. for the 90 day election period has officially started in the philippines and there are you thousands of candidates viper around 18000 spots across the 15th and the philippines. only a festive affair, dancing music and lots of catchy phrases and powerful things. but it doesn't make it any less vision. that's when people in did the elections seen as the most consensus in recent, a lot unique i and anyway,

that are candidates who can do many things under kind. and let's see that they are corrupt, but no, it's hard to find someone who is not corrupt. we have to consider their actions and how they're taking action. no, someone who is patriotic and who will put the country 1st. began b. o. i hope that the candidates will provide jobs and help the economy not on and off, just like now because sometimes people have something to eat and sometimes they don't have to which keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poor. i mean, the next president is expected to inherit, no president, good number of challenges in the country. the country is facing it, or is beacon nomic recession and decade. staggering unemployment rate. each standard it is promising reform unity and change what this election is no different . most of the candidates are using their family connection money and popularity to get elected. so who are the leading candidates for nan marco's junior is leaving

the opinion polls despite being accused of white washing his family's past, to try and build a new image for himself. his running mate provides president, is one of president rodrigo to tear to his daughter's sarah. the current vice president. lenny robledo is the only female presidential candidate. the former human rights lawyer is a harsh critic of duties, so called war on drugs. the mayor of manila and former movie star francisco dome i go so is also in the race. better known by his screen name is sco moreno. he's promised a strong stance against china's militarization of the south china sea. senator and boxing champion money puck yo has also questioned, deterred his relationship with china. he's vowing to jail corrupt officials if elected ah. all right, let's bring in our guess in marchina, that's near the capital manila, the nila rao, professor of journalism at the university of the philippines. he's also convenor of

the election watchdog contra dia. that means against fraud in paris, author and journalist criselda ya bas. and in manila, richard, hey daria and professor of political science at the polytechnic university of the philippines. he's the author of the book called the rise of to tear t a populace revolt against elite democracy a warm welcome to you all. and thanks so much for joining the program today. chris, out the, let me start with you. what does the state of this election say about the state of philippines? politics today? oh, what basically for us it's just either we move forward or we go back. moving forward means undoing what the president has done. and the ford edge of more democratic goes, although that's kind of big. but basically, bringing back, you know, the rule of law, human rights and equality. but moving

back means going back. i mean, boating for market junior, the son of the lake and people somehow seem to have the solution that it was the golden age of the philippines. and it was not so going back basically would also mean unemployment. why are option money getting stolen in from the coffers and you have you, it would just be a repeat of what mine cuz his father has done. so that's essentially it for now. there are more things to be on earth, of course, but that would depend on how it would move forward. and even if we do move forward, it would still take time. it's not a fit, things will change overnight. there's not to be ah, to, to, to be corrected in a lot to straight up. and so it just really depends on the kind of leadership that

we would have this year. denila. i saw you nodding along to a lot of what criselda was saying there. it looked like you wanted to jump in. so please go ahead. of course, this is the make or break when it comes to whatever is left before democracy. ask yourself for that. we know that there's a lot going on in the states now with all the problems of the rain and be let me so the 2022 parts will basically be an indictment off that the station. although we do knowledge the early us now mark or commanding need based on the base of their preference with regard to those running for them. so there is a not to talk about right now. and for me, from my media standpoint, i can see here that for me an awkward for me, sean is working very well for the america stamps. because right now if ever he

would end up the how. i mean they're that they said and showed race. it's something where there are certain finally, listen to that on something in the sense that there is to be about the network of these information. go be on and we do our knowledge, the fact that for your media organizations, there's check that the h. there is fact 1st b h, there are just, looks like now that are the we, jackie, and a lot of people are very concerned with what's happening and they do fact checking themselves. we see a high level of b, j lance, among the people right now. richard denila, there was talking about this information. i saw that you were also reacting to what he was saying. and i want to ask you from your perspective, how much is this information playing a role in the election thus far? and how much do you think it will play a role in the election going forward, or at least the campaigning? well, i mean, let's not kid ourselves here. worse of freedom. bungle marcus junior is concerned.

he doesn't even have it. he doesn't only have a commanding lead, it's increasingly looking like a prohibitive lead over all other rivals. he has more than twice the numbers of the 2nd clothes, his rival, the opposition leader, and linear though, i think its most fundamental level, i think what we're witnessing right now is what his store, yes, would call a counter revolution. this is a bought the marcus project of nostalgic politics. ready and the visa ration of the greatest ideals, the promise, and the institutional legacy of the 1986, et cetera. lucian, which toppled the marcus's should current trends stand and imelda, marcos and the rest of the family find themselves back in the presidential palace. we are talking about nothing less than a regime change. so for me, this is the most important phillip in electrons, at least in the past half a century. and the stakes are extremely high. and let's see whether the trend lines will old in the coming weeks and months because this was supposed to be a course correction for all the troubles and mistakes of the deterred

administration. instead, this could be actually keeping the philippines besieged democracy over the cliff. criselda richard, there was just talking about this nostalgia factor, and a few moments ago you were talking in your answer about the fact that potential voters are associating mr. marco's with this golden age. and i'm wondering how that came to be. i mean, you're talking about for now, marco's junior is the son of a dictator. his father was overthrown by a popular revolt. so how do we get to this stage right now where the limbs that people are, are, or it seems, many potential voters in the philippines are looking through to view mr. marco's is a lens of nostalgia. well, just simply by things, it's basically a lack of critical thinking, but also because another things went wrong with the education system. since the 986

people power revolved the restore democracy. so you don't, you know, your textbooks, your school books didn't have anything or didn't have much about what we went on during the marshal era. and you compare that to mike was having, you know, had the best intellectuals of his time, write a book about his ideology, which the families feel tried to carry on the carry over the years. so you have that. so you have the education system going down and you also have the population growing and you have a majority of the population who don't have access to good education. we don't have access to books and filipinos don't generally read books. i hate saying that because it's not entirely true, but you know, and in the sense that it's not the 1st thing that they would look for to find out about what we went wrong or what we went wrong to the country and what happened during marshall. so it's easy for them to just believe in whatever is told them,

whatever they see on facebook, whatever they see on social media. and you know, if you have a big portion of the population, not having access to good education. and if you have education not improving as much as, as much as it should be, then what do you have, who become a grant of what really went on and people who don't know their history doesn't have much of a future? and that's where we are now. we don't know what our future will be. that's the problem. that's the biggest problem denila. i wanna take a step back for a moment and talk about the importance or perhaps we should say popularity of political dynasties in the philippines and examined that with you for a couple of minutes because the running mate for fernand marcos. junior, his run made a choice for vice president is sarah detector. that's one of the daughters of the current president, rodrigo do charity. so just how powerful are political dynasties in the philippines

. and i also want to ask you, if political parties have tended to be secondary to personalities there? ah, well right now our rapid got it all regions in the philippines would have, i believe, the code dynasty stare. so the irony in the philippines is that the border, the area, the strong there that will need to go diagnosed. these become, actually even the white in the system has been hijacked by that each and powerful most especially big business. and of course, that will be the del dynasty, so that might be the system has become a back door and an additional seat at the house of representatives for those with the same cern means some things. there's even anecdotal evidence where husband and wife would run into separate if this states that's just so they would get a strong their foot hold on. there by deacon are area where they old dominion. so political dynasty, it's very, very powerful. and with regard to political part,

dcea clinic and seeing that it's mainly personality based. and it's mainly defined by me by the fakes, whoever can finance up, i think in our political might be, you can expect that to be the one to norton over high that might be, can i believe that the landscape? so that's why the ankle, the sam is very normal in the philippines and like in other countries, swear, changing part b would be a big standout here it's white noise. my. the running joke is unit 3. feet on in one room and after a few are sorry, so you'll have 5 will need the gold wired piece of the people that know by the or will you think i might, the system is richard. and you mentioned in your previous answer on that from your vantage point. fernand marcos junior has a commanding lead. perhaps a lead that you know, nobody might be able to basically overcome going forward. um the current vice president, lenny robledo, she's a former human rights lawyer. she's been a harsh critic of president of terre tase, so called war on drugs. she is the leader of the opposition. i want to ask you 1st,

what are her chances is is there any way that she could perhaps actually be a viable threat to mr. marcos and also how organized overall is the opposition in the philippines. well, in many ways the string thought, conservative right wing oriented leaders. what are the territory, marcus's? it's also a function of the weakness of the opposition. i mean, the philippine opposition is notoriously divided. you move to the left or at least 3 different functions. there us for us, the center left for a liberal democrats like your linear bread, very concerned. there was an effort to create the common united front, a united opposition that the, the time out. it was supposed to be something of a combination of linear bread or after money buck y'all, and the sco moreno guess what all of them are now running against each other. now if you look at the other side, actually bobo marcos, what only number 3. he was only calling a 13 percent 6 months ago,

2 quarters ago. now he's at 53 percent in some of the more authoritative service. and the large part of that is because started the 3rd to decide that decided the team rather than to go against the. so as this united that the opposition has been, the other side has been relatively more united. but let me also push back a little bit against, i mean, i agree with criselda, the critical thinking and basic basic education is important. but let's not forget the basic data. if you look at the solid base, the in the listing support base both for 2 thirds and marcos, it's actually in the most developed parts of the country. it's the national capital region. it's a northern provinces of the philippines which are more developed. and if you look at the demographic base, it's among a b c middle class, where do tear at the end mark is actually have the highest numbers of support and that has a lot to do with a lot of disenchanted middle class philipino would join at. so wondered lucian to join at the revolution and they didn't see the fundamental changes in the country. the proliferation of political dynasties dominating optim 90 percent of legislature

has made a mockery out of the ideals of the $986.00 cerebral use on. so you have an angry disenchanted section of the middle class really at the solid base of the markets. and unfortunately, the rest of that is a lot of by winning a lot of fashion. and a lot of just people going on going with the latest fad as far as this election is concerned, that the middle class in the philippines has turned against democracy. and we have seen this printer in thailand, in chiller, in turkey, in brazil. many other countries which are also experiencing their own counter revolution. criselda, i want to ask you if you think we're going to see president, do tear tay endorse a candidate or from those currently running a previously he had chosen sen, christopher, go, but mr. go, i believe, withdrew from the race last year. i believe it was a november is president to charity. going to endorse somebody and you believe that that will be mr. marco's? i just didn't saying things against the wall mark list. i'm not really sure about

him. and doing thinking, but knowing that there to you never know what you do with the last minute. everything about you've been on it. this is always at the last minute. i mean, yes, we see the surveys going up, but you never really know until like the last month or even the last 2 weeks. and that's what happened. you know, 6 years ago. there's just so much unpredictability in what's going on now and not just now, but even in the last 2 years. and it's all fed by a lot of confusion, a lot of trickery. a lot of this information and how to, you know, to, to, to get out of that if it's something difficult to do. so i really don't know what it would do. no. i think you might just wait and see as well at the last minute and, you know, knowing him, you just don't know. i mean, this whole thing has been like a political and i think that's the sad part about the country. it's, you know,

we've come to a point where every day we don't know anymore, what might happened was we haven't yet reached the point where whoever wins the institutions was the still keep working. we don't know anymore. we don't know what would happen to policies and institutions once somebody thinks faller, and it depends on who that person is. it's really danny. the new listen earlier. it's really all about personalities. and that's going to be our bid for the biggest ever denila. it looks very much like you want to jump in, so please go ahead. i agree with this out about when she says that everything so unpredictable. and in fact, i would even dare say that. that's not how i may be right now when what you will be doing ends up being on whatever and in the near future. he may be criticizing my quest now, but later on he might be sharing the same speech with him. i understand that right

now. yes, endorse, i feel sorry, i can do that so it won't be surprising. it can be endorsing another one. however, let me just jump into what happened. you might, you might be just the best. how unpredictable things are we weren't expecting that you can do. that means i'm on that i will show in for the presidency, but i'd be before or a few days before the election. be something controversial. how did him? and then our precedent for the around was beginning. uh huh. eventually in there. so you see that kind of unpredictability, the thing back to make the make the pool. and if we want to go further back actually, but this information network by the wife process actually started not now or not recently, but in 1989 when they started coming back to the philippines after their exile in the united states. they'd like to run for local office somewhere in the northern

part of the fine city. they succeed, that they've messed up the want. there's again to run for national office. i think there'd be the same if it weren't again. you'll have, i mean, marcus and bumble mark was becoming senate are in the right now. we're seeing wrong . mark or city being back open for they words of their patients for what happened for the seats that they planted. the thing back, the 99. richard, and what will president do tell his legacy b, how popular does he remain? that's 1st and foremost, how popular does he remain in the philippines and how difficult will it be for whomever is elected next to step out of that shadow? well, i mean, do, terry, that is the embodiment of what you can call per formative populism. right? he's numbers are really, really high. i mean, he's a plus 16 net approval rating. odd. this is unprecedented. we're looking at numbers that no other flipping president achieved. and yet, it seems there's an inverse relationship with the 3rd as popularity number,

if an actual effectiveness of the president in dealing with some fundamental issues facing the country, including the pandemic, including the economic damage and recovery from that economic damage. the philippines is among the poorest performing countries in the region, and at some point was at the bottom of the rankings in south east asia and bro duration region. so it seems that the 2 are disconnected, and a lot of that is about the per for maternity of the administration. everyone talks about this information on demarcus. it's, but they do this are, you know, present their, this support is our experts in this and a lot of them now are switching to the mark with sites. so we're going to see perhaps more continuation of the present. now, what is legacy going to be? well, if you know he's through will tell someone within the past you, we can make all sorts of arguments about where he failed and where he not. obviously if you're a critic of them, are you care about human rights? you're going to be hard to fight by the number of extra judicial killings and he's drug war. but if you're a part of that there,

you're going to look at how he dealt with some low hanging problems. for instance, passports in the philippines are easier to get a lot of basic. all you know of office work is now easier. love infrastructure project started under that, that it depends. it depends on what you care about more. clearly, we are in the unprecedented territory because in the past, the national capital region, manila tends to be anti incumbency, meaning they tend to go against the opposition. and yet, if you look at the number of linear bread on going back, you're actually previous questions and they dancer directly, then your bread is doing really bad, the national capital region, the national capital region is voting more for bond markets by part. so this looks like a vote against the regime that replace markets and this is a volt that is favoring the whole, the 3rd, the markets axis care. so the, you talk before about the unpredictability factor. and i want to ask you about something that's obviously going to have an impact in this campaign that would be covert 19. how much concern is there right now in the philippines about it and from

your vantage point, how might it impact, you know, the campaign and perhaps the election? yeah. are you talking about the pandemic fire? yes. yes. oh, you know what, when, what i think people who went through the 1st difficult 1st difficult year of the make realize that they were on their own. the government wasn't going to be there to help them clearly that should have been like a negative or for, for the government, but it wasn't. and why that was so i'm not sure. but i think essentially people have got to have of doing things on their own because national government has never been there. and you can say that when it comes to natural disasters, which happens every year. and you know, there has been no clear policy on what should be done about climate change, renewable energy and stuff like that. people have become known to

demanding accountability. if you go to even the smallest province smallest villages and you see a government official who has a beautiful house compared to others, they don't. people don't ask why do you have that? where did you get the money from? so then in their minds, maybe we should also try to do that join governments. so we can also have enough money. values have some, has somehow been distorted and that has changed. so we've got 19, i'm not even sure it may take that. all right, well we have run out of time, so we're going to have to leave the conversation there. thanks so much to all of our guest neela around for so the obvious and richard. hey dorian and thank you for watching. you can see the program again. any time by visiting our website, al jazeera dot com and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha, inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is at ha, inside story for me, how much room and a whole team here, bye for now. i

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