Here are the facts to consider when answering the question:
(1) The Philippines’ current Chief Executive is legally in power and serving a term he was elected to serve.
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(2) The Philippines currently has a functioning legislature composed of freely-elected representatives who feel perfectly free to express a diverse range of competing points of view.
(3) The Philippine Supreme Court is fully-functional and fully-independent and acts within the framework of the law and within range of due process.
(4) A thriving and profitable news media industry exists and the three biggest networks and publishers are seen to be mainly hostile to the current government. This is evidence that there are no measures instigated by the state currently in effect that directly aim to stifle dissent and free discourse.
(5) The police is under civilian command and its personnel can be held accountable to offenses against the law by the current criminal justice system.
(6) Filipinos are free to travel anywhere in the country without being subject to routine identification checks by police or military personnel.
(7) State mass broadcast media is not given preferential treatment and private broadcast media are under no obligation to broadcast its content.
Conclusion:
Simple. The Philippines is not governed by an authoritarian regime nor do Filipinos experience any outcomes of governance commonly-associated with “dictatorships”. People who assert that the Philippine government is a “dictatorship” are making false claims.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
We can just claim, dictatorship, without even thinking, about the term; if we are in the opposition. Actually, we need a strong leader, who can impose to us, the rule of law.
We Filipinos are mostly hardheaded; and we enjoy flaunting the laws of the land. The media is no longer the monopoly of Oligarchs, because of the advent of social media, and citizen journalists. We still have corruption; widespread shabu drug problems; incompetent politicians; narco politics; widespread poverty; mushrooming squatters in urban areas; etc…
We can hope against hope that these evils, will be eradicated in our lifetimes.
If people can protest freely against government without any repercussions at all, then there is no dictatorship. If they speak their minds and not be arrested or interrogated or jailed or punished in any way, then there is no dictatorship. If they can call their President names and burn his effigies, without being accosted by law enforcers and sent somewhere and never to be found, then there is no dictatorship. If students go to school free, join rallies and protests against the very government that pay for their scholarship and still keep that scholarship, then there is no dictatorship. If people still claim that there is dictatorship when in fact there is none, then they need to seek professional help.
Whoever is sharing any news claiming that the Philippines is under a dictatorship is sharing fake news.
Let us face it.The Filipino is not disciplined-We prefer to take the easy way out. We have allowed the past governments to steal from us wide awake and preferred to join these bandits in their way of life or never cared and never in chorus did we say SToP!.We now have the people, the masses being paid attention to and the political oligarchs and their chums fearing it could be their turn soon because their freedom to steal more has been curtailed.Wake up, let us take advantage of the short time that our Leader has to correct some ways and conciousness we have accepted as a way of corrupt life.The people finally have the freedom and the energy to become truly Nationalistic-We all seem to have forgotten what Dictatorship was all about.Let us unite for a better Philippines-Make it a Goal.
Privilege is when your voice is the norm but still you claim to be unheard.