MANILA: In the Philippines, presidential candidates are campaigning across the archipelago less than ten days before national and local elections, luring people with plenty of promises despite the Covid-19 crisis.

The election campaign reaches its last days, sloganeering and mudslinging escalate in a desperate attempt to ruin their rivals. Drone imagery is currently being used to demonstrate which political gathering has a large number of people. Some politicians' children and supporters have started a door-to-door campaign to meet voters in person. On the campaign trail, presidential candidates send singers and actors to amuse the crowd.

The candidates barely, if at all, explain how they plan to cope with spiralling debts or how to resurrect the pandemic-ravaged economy and end decades of corruption, widespread poverty, and rising food costs.

On May 9, more than 65.7 million Filipinos will vote to elect a new President, Vice President, 12 of the 24 Senate members, and members of the House of Representatives. Over 18,000 congressional and local jobs are up for grabs, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

According to recent polls, Ferdinand Marcos Junior., the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, is expected to win the race with a majority of the vote over incumbent Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.

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