president rodrigo duterte is best known for his violent war on drugs. i'm just saying, if you create a problem for us, i will take you out. thousands of drug suspects have been killed by police and vigilantes. now, two years after being elected, critics say duterte‘s administration is attacking the very institutions designed to keep his power in check and locking up those who criticise him. senator, are you innocent? the judiciary, the legislature, you harass those opposing you, and you try to pull them beyond your term. i have been covering the philippines for more than a year, and little surprises me. even the children of infamous dictator ferdinand marcos are emerging as powerful players in their own right. do you see similarities between president duterte and your father? not at all. you're asking the wrong person, thank you. as the president's grip on power tightens, are we witnessing a return to the politics of dictatorship? night time in tondo, a district with one of the highest crime rates in the philippine capital. there is a curfew here. if you are under 18, you need to be off the streets by ten o'clock. we are riding with police officers here in tondo, manila. what they are looking for its antisocial behaviour. ‘tambays,’ or loiterers. in the last month, we have seen thousands of people apprehended for drinking in the streets, smoking in public, or walking around without t—shirts on. in this crowded city, where many live in small, stuffy shacks, it's normal for people to socialise in the streets. but now duterte is determined to eradicate what he calls loitering. the philippines is infamous for its full—to—bursting jails. with the president's crackdown on antisocial behaviour, the situation is getting much worse. outside, a van arrives, seemingly filled with children. but the police are not as keen for us to film them. manila is the world's most densely populated city. 21 million people crowd in here, and life at the bottom is pretty tough. the district of tondo is where many new arrivals to the city go. but it is hard to move on from here. it has become the most populous area of the philippine capital. it is squalid, drenched in poverty, and at the sharp end of the president's more draconian policies. ricardo and russell live beside a heavily polluted river. they are both unemployed and, seemingly, basketball is their only escape. when it comes to authoritarian leaders, this is a country with a rich pedigree. archive newsreel: ferdinand marcos is the only filipino to be twice—elected president. he has now extended his second term of office by more than a year and shows no inclination to step down. in the 1970s, the philippines fell into the clutches of a notorious dictator, ferdinand marcos, who declared martial law. the president today exhorted members of the judiciary to expedite action... he muzzled the media, closed down political opposition, and took control of thejudicial process. he and his wife imelda plundered the country's coffers to the tune of $10 billion, and set the benchmark high for corruption. imelda became a byword for greed, exemplified by her vast collection of designer shoes and dresses. eventually, the marcos family fled the country in 1986. now, some critics believe that history is in danger of repeating itself. president duterte came to power promising to root out the country's big social problem, drugs. much of myjob has been reporting on the fallout from this policy. in the last two years, the president's war on drugs has seen at least 4000 suspected drug users and dealers killed during police operations. it is notjust the war on drugs, but also the attacks on the constitution which many fear threaten democracy here. the president's biggest critic is a long—standing political opponent, senator leila de lima. as chairperson on the commission on human rights, she investigated an earlier killing spree. before becoming president, duterte was accused of controlling a death squad in the provincial city of davao, where he was mayor, responsible for more than 1,000 deaths and disappearances. in february 2017 the department ofjustice detained de lima following allegations of corruption by the president. many believe they are trumped up charges. i attended her recent trial. senator, bbc, are you innocent? i am innocent! the world knows that i am innocent. i am being persecuted. for now, the senator is being held in a detention cell in the national police headquarters infamous under the marcos regime for disappearances and torture. as a foreign journalist, i am not allowed to interview the senator inside her detention cell. instead, i have sent questions to her special adviser and she has responded by writing 21 pages of handwritten letters. in them, she details what life is like inside the detention cell and also why she believes president rodrigo duterte is bullying politicians. "being corrupt is not in my dna and no amount of lies or black propaganda can change the fact that i am innocent. duterte ran a death squad, the so—called davao death squad, responsible for the murder of at least 1200 individuals. once this criminal gangster from the backwater of a philippines captured the popular imagination, he transformed the philippine state into a gangster state." senator antonio trillanes is a staunch defender of the imprisoned senator. he led an allegation into enquiries that the president's son was involved in a drug deal worth $125 million. paolo duterte denied the accusation and issued a chilling warning. how do you assess the current health of democracy in the philippines under president rodrigo duterte? well, it's going to flatline at any moment when duterte decides to declare nationwide martial law or a revolutionary government. do you think that is likely? given the opportunity, he would pull the trigger. so we, the members of the opposition, are preparing for such eventualities. but he said he would not want to stay in office a day longer than he is democratically elected to be in office for. well, those of us who have profiled mr duterte would not give him the benefit of the doubt, or take his word. another stern critic of duterte is the country's top judge, chief justice maria sereno. in may, she too was unceremoniously removed from office. she believes the duterte administration is now threatening the very independence of thejudiciary. it does not like criticism. it shows viciousness against groups of people that it deems are its critics. it tries to show that the strong arm of the presidency is not beyond being used to oppress people. administration wants, that you cannot cross him, and if you cross him you are going to pay a high price for it. inside the congress building on the day of his recent state of the nation speech, nobody is disagreeing with mr duterte. harry roque is the president's spin doctor. once a darling of the left and a celebrated human rights activist, he is adamant there is no creep to dictatorship. some of your colleagues were shocked when you started working with president duterte because of his on the record disregard for human rights. well, he doesn't support the organised human rights community, but he has actually been exculpated from claims of mass murder by the un special rapporteur, who investigated the case of the davao death squad. he was completely cleared of liability. at most they were administrative lapses, perhaps. it was clear from the report that he was not behind the davao death squad. and despite this, people persist in accusing him of being behind, now, the drug—related killings. this is an interesting interpretation of the united nations‘ report into the davao death squad. i wrote to the un special rapporteur, philip alston, to see if he agreed with mr roque‘s statement that the president had been completely cleared of liability. duterte is taking no chances with other international bodies. in march, he unilaterally withdrew the philippines from thejurisdiction of the international criminal court. but the duterte government's attacks are not limited to political orjudicial opponents. the media is also in its sights. the rappler news website was started in 2012, staffed by ambitious millenials keen to expose human rights abuses. in january the government revoked the company's media licence, claiming it was unconstitutional because it has foreign investors. the charges are incredible, and they are false. foreign ownership, i mean, we wanted to be independent, because if you get a filipino investor, there is political pressure, they can cave in much sooner, right? we haven't caved in, because we are journalists. the legal charges against the company were one matter. more disturbing were the threats on the internet. 90 hate messages per hour. when you get that number, you have to work out if it's real, where it's coming from. rape threats were normal, i have been called every single animal you could think of. this was meant to bludgeon you into silence. what i have learnt in the last year is that the only defence you really have is to shine the light. so we've gone ahead. pia ranada cut her teeth at rappler covering duterte‘s presidential campaign in 2016. pia ranada cut her teeth at rappler covering duterte‘s presidential campaign in 2016. she got a unique insight into the would—be president. he was a very different kind of politician. he was the type who would swear. he had his reputation of being a killer, someone who flouts the usual mould of a politician. so he was also very charming in his own way. he had his way with reporters, with media, with people around him. he was very charismatic. but the relationship turned sour when pia wrote an article alleging corruption within the administration. she is now barred from covering the president. my wings are clipped. i am limited in my movement. also, my family is very worried about me because they see all the threats online and off—line. i get e—mails with death threats and rape threats. so it has definitely not been easy. although the majority of the population seemed to approve of the president's strongarm tactics, you can still find those who openly criticise him. at the manila gay pride event, the punk group, male gaze, are not afraid to speak out. he makes misogynistic comments on a very regular basis. we want people to realise this is not something that can be normalised. the president right now is like obviously trying to manipulate the judiciary and the legislative bodies to bend to his well. so i don't know if you could call that a democracy. across town, there's an altogether different song being sung. at a party fundraiser, the president's supporters are charmed by his karaoke performance. and across the country, one recent opinion poll has his approval rating as high as 88%. thank you, president. many are drawn to his tough talking, zero tolerance style. it is not only the president who is keen to hit the right notes. perhaps it is coincidence, but in the philippines today, the marcos brand is undergoing a rehabilitation. the daughter of the man who stole $10 billion from the public purse, and who shares her mother's love of designer shoes, is keen to remind the country that a strong leader is best for the country. it all sounds reminiscent of another period in the philippines‘ history, when political freedoms were also deemed a luxury. president marcos backed his warning by sending marine units towards the camps where the military faction backing the opposition is holed up. under imee marcos‘s father, martial law was imposed on the country for over a decade. there were accusations of torture and extrajudicial killing. governor, howard johnson, bbc news. it's coming up to two years of president duterte's rule — do you see similarities between him and your father? not really. and why is that? they are both lawyers. that is about it. do you think that they have the same style of rule — some punitive moves under duterte and your father? not at all. you're asking the wrong person. thank you. if the daughter of the famous dictator is not the right person to ask, how about the son? ferdinand marcos junior, known as bong bong, is every bit as ambitious as his sister. he is currently jocking to become the vice president. if you come to power, would you rule the country in the same way as your father? i think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. i'm talking about the protest for the vice presidential election. i really haven't thought about that. thank you for are much, but if you elected as vice president, what would your style be? similar to yourfather? my father was never vice president. in every period in our history, there is a different sort of leadership. that is only defined by the circumstances that prevail at the time. so until we get there, it's impossible to say. the extent of bong bong's ambition remains unclear. but in the past month, president duterte has tipped him as a possible successor. some have said there is a fear of returning to an era of martial law under the dictatorship of ferdinand marcos. we are seeing attacks on judiciary, the media, and politicians. is that fair? terribly unfair. is democracy in danger? how could he be a dictator? he was constitutionally elected, democratically elected. whether or not you like him, he stays there until 2022. duterte's grip on power looks secure. despite his brutal war on drugs and the stifling of opposition, the majority of the country still supports them. since we interviewed senator trillanes, president duterte has ordered his arrest. injust one presidential proclamation, he demonstrated his executive and judicial powers. that is a dictatorship the matter how you look at it. the president's rule is increasingly authoritarian. with more years in power, the future for democracy here is looking bleak. as you might expect at this time of year, the week ahead will chop and change, no two consecutive days exactly the same. complicated by this cloud, the remnants of the strip. but whenever you introduce this tropical energy into ourjet stream, the forecast models have a tricky time ahead. through sunday, we've got a cold front sliding south and east was across the uk, running into an area of high pressure so any rain on that front will tend to dissipate through the day. behind it, some colder air, a cooler feeling day across the uk on sunday. we start with a fair amount of cloud across northern england, midlands, pushing southwards. a cloudy day for england and wales, with the odd spot of rain at first. sunshine for northern ireland and scotland but also frequent and heavy blustery showers. temperatures tomorrow higher than —— not much higher than ten or 15 celsius. monday, the area of high pressure builds from the west. for most of us on monday, dry is rather cool start with a northerly wind. in the wind direction, a few showers speeding down the west and east coast and clipping some exposed coast lies but foremost on monday, mainly dry with sunshine, cloud dobbing across northern and webster and scotland, temperatures not much higher than ten to 15 celsius. from monday and tuesday, we have this area of high pressure but it starts to drift south and west with allows this from two once again slip away across the uk will bring showers the outbreaks of rain through tuesday so i cloudy day across much of england and wales with some showers. spells of sunshine devoting behind but generally a lot of cloud and also a fairly noticeable west or westerly wind. temperatures packing up a little bit across england and wales. by little bit across england and wales. by the time we get to the liver week, it looks like high pressure sta rts week, it looks like high pressure starts to build again, settling things down, the winds will be lighter, a mixture of variable cloud and sunny spells and away from the far north of scotland, we could catch a few showers, most should have made friday on wednesday and vegan wales temperatures again made to high teens but a coolerfeel across scotland are temperatures will be a little higher. thursday, modified front across northern and western scotland, traipse down across northern ireland. slowly sinking south and east woods, behind it some sunshine, cooler again, temperatures between 17 and 19 celsius across england and wales. for the end of the week, this is whether computer models tend to disagree. many do keep this area of high pressure as we go into friday but others develop something little more unsettled. let's look at the tropical storm washi it looks like the tropical energy gets caught up in thejet the tropical energy gets caught up in the jet stream and starts to extend across the uk, this undulating pattern later in the week and into the weekend, that is a potential for things turning a little wetter and windier through the weekend but something we need to keep an eye on. that will clear and we see high pressure with something colder and wetter but milder as we go into the early part of next week. chopping and changing in this forecast, keep an eye on the detail. goodbye. this is bbc news i'm carole walker. the headlines at ten. powerful aftershocks have continued to hit the indonesian island of sulawesi, following an earthquake and tsunami which killed hundreds of people. rescuers say dozens are still missing you believe it was my while. -- wow. is that the thing europeans need? mcilroy had been in a stupor since the 4th mcilroy had been in a stupor since the 11th hole. look we received a number of reports that bodies were found along the shoreline but the numbers are still unknown. theresa may arrives for the conservative conference in birmingham as the party apologises for a breach in security of the official conference app that revealed the contact details of senior politicians. a warning from the business secretary that a no—deal brexit could jeopardise britain's status as a world leader in the car industry also coming up — facebook has reset tens of millions of accounts after discovering its

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