MANILA, Philippines — A day before Filipinos headed to the polls, the 2022 Philippines elections were given the limelight on the newest episode of HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," particularly about the misinformation online allegedly surrounding and benefitting former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The late night show, winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series for six consecutive years, has discussed the Philippines particularly about outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte and his vulgar speeches that include cursing at Pope Francis and former US President Barack Obama.
Oliver began the show by introducing the Philippines as the origins for Filipino-American singers Bruno Mars and Olivia Rodrigo, as well as praise for Jollibee for having "the single greatest fastfood restaurant mascot of all time."
He then detailed the number of casualties that occurred under Duterte's so-called "war on drugs" which prompted investigation from the International Criminal Court, and how critical individuals like Sen. Leila de Lima and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa were either detained or handed arrest warrants.
Oliver told viewers that Duterte's term was ending but that his daughter Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is running for vice-president in tandem with Marcos Jr., even showing a clip of the mayor punching a sheriff in 2011.
Marcos refresher for international viewers
The host reminded the audience that Marcos' father and namesake was a dictator whose Martial Law regime saw numerous human rights violations, and that the infamous shoe collection of his mother Imelda was "a sign of the staggering scale of Marcoses' graft," as formerly recognized by Guinness World Records as the "greatest robbery of a government."
A clip of the younger Marcos' rare interview with CNN Philippines was shown where he said his parents reminded him that everything they had came from the people, and Oliver compared the Marcoses to the British Museum "in that most of what they have is f***ing stolen."
Oliver acknowledged that America's history with the Philippines was troubling, particularly during their occupation, wartime, and post-independence, but Marcos' martial law regime was as if not more terrible given the thousands of people tortured and killed while the Marcoses siphoned billions of pesos from the country.
A clip from "Hawaii News Now" in 2019 showed how Imelda was very adept in spending the money the Marcoses had stolen, and Oliver jabbed at a claim that Imelda forced a plane to turn back because she forgot to buy cheese in Italy.
"What do you mean 'forced the airplane?' Did Imelda storm the cockpit?" Oliver said, adding that Filipino cuisine is already splendid without cheese, using adobo as an example.
Related: 3 years since graft conviction of Imelda Marcos, Martial Law victims appeal affirmation of verdict
While Oliver acknowledged that Marcos Jr. was "not innately responsible" for his father's actions, he said the younger Marcos benefitted from the billions stolen, a majority of which their family took with them to Hawaii after the People Power Revolution ousted the late dictator.
Oliver shared that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCG), created to recover the Marcoses ill-gotten wealth, has only managed to retrieve around $5 billion (P262 billion) from an estimated $10 billion (P524 billion) due to court delays and pushback from the Marcoses, as highlighted in a clip of Marcos Jr. during debate in 2016 when his opponent and now-Vice President Leni Robredo called him out.
Rampant misinformation and revisionism
Oliver said that much of Marcos Jr.'s popularity stems from decades of historical revisionism bout the martial law years being peddled online, as explained in several clips from the documentary "The Kingmaker."
"Since the return of the Marcoses, there's been a trickle of information on YouTube, Google that's a revisionism of the interpretation of martial law," activist May Rodriguez says in the documentary, followed by children saying they heard good things about the Marcos regime.
The host compared that with the Philippines being the leader in time spent on the Internet thus being "the most online nation in the world," which President Duterte benefitted from due to paid trolls and Facebook engagement.
Related: 'Golden age': Marcos myths on Philippine social media
This time around, Facebook and TikTok are filled with videos and posts romanticizing the Marcos family, and Oliver spent some time criticizing a false post claiming that the elder Marcos was instrumental to basketball legend Michael Jordan's rise to stardom.
"That is the single dumbest story involving a young Michael Jordan I've ever heard, and I have seen 'Space Jam'," Oliver joked. He then juxtaposed the misinformation that put the Marcoses in good light against the vicious online attacks thrown at Robredo, also a presidential candidate, which have been mostly negative.
Oliver then took a jab at Marcos Jr.'s wife Liza after showing the Boy Abunda interview where she said her husband decided to run for president while in the middle of watching the Marvel movie "Ant-Man."
"No f***ing way, that did not happen, I am calling total bulls**t on the idea that [Marcos] decided to run for president out of nowhere mid-Marvel movie," Oliver exclaimed pointing out that as president, Marcos would hold sway over the PCGG and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which is waiting to collect the P23 billion estate tax owed by the Marcoses.
Oliver continued on by saying "Ant-Man" could be the perfect movie to inspire his presidential run "given that it's about a thief whose questionable past is forgotten after he rises to power using resources that he also stole."
Pushback from the people
The host then shared that not everyone is on board with Marcos becoming president, pointing out thousands of Filipinos have backed Robredo and appeared at her pink rallies, and shared a clip of vice presidential candidate Walden Bello criticizing Marcos Jr.
"Marcos has created a big public relations machinery on social media and hundreds of trolls to try to convince people that martial law, a collective nightmare, were golden years," Bello said. "This is a family that has raped the country, it has not apologized to the country, and now he wants to rape the country again. F**k you Marcos!"
Oliver and the studio audience applauded their agreement with Bello, and the host added that "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."
He ended the segment saying that Filipinos are not just voting for their future but also their past, and acknowledged he may not be the right person to be discussing Philippine elections, though he did say that the United States is no stranger to dishonest billionaires who propel themselves to power with Facebook lies, showing former US President Donald Trump as an example.
"Don't listen to me, but listen to your fellow citizens who both remember the past and are determined not to repeat it because Marcos has virtually shown no remorse for what his father has put the country through," Oliver closed, quoting President Duterte to insult Marcos.
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