We could feel the energy the minute we landed in Manila. Posters, matching t-shirts, balloons, marches and motorcades were clogging and polluting the already severely choked traffic arteries. An election we new nothing about suddenly had our rapt attention.

Manny is running for Senator

A side-effect of travel that we have come to appreciate is that it grows your borders and alters your global perspective. In this case, we would never have known, nor cared, about the Philippine election, but being there has made it matter to us. We are biting our nails waiting to see what happens.

The drama of this story is driven by its characters. Primarily a reluctant candidate who is now the front runner, but before I tell you more about him, I must explain how we got our expidited education.

The Philippines is unique in Aisa because almost everyone understands and speaks English or, at the very least, "Taglish" which is Tagalog with a few words we recognize. Because of this, we became privy to the opinions and preferences of many Manila Uber drivers and tour guides. They spoke freely of their history of foreign occupation, their president-turned-dictator Ferdinand Marcos (and his shoe loving wife Imelda), their revolution, and now their election to pick a new president. These folks are keenly aware that the selection pool is shallow, but they know how it works, and are willing to play their part in the process.

We were also told, about a handful of billionaire families who control virtually everything. This oligarchical structure is as transparent as it is corrupt. The chasm between the rich and the rest is gigantic.

Of the 104 million people in the country more than half of them live at or below the poverty line (actually rumoured to be 70%,) That's a lot. Many flock to the cities, like Manila, for non-existent work. Most are desperate. So, they do what they must to survive; sometimes it's not so nice.

As a result, security guards are at every door, bags checked, backs patted for weapons, doors quickly locked, windows blackened, heads down, fences high. It's hard.

That's why this part is so interesting. One city in the Philippines is RADICALLY different: Davao City is ranked the 4th safest city in the world! How? Why? Because their mayor of 22 years, Rodrigo Duterte, aka the death-squad-mayor, "gets rid of" any unsavoury elements.

Duterte is also the aforementioned reluctant presidential candidate.

So many Filipino people encouraged him to run that he entered the race. Now, according to the 7-11 Big Gulp poll (which correctly predicted the past 2 presidents) he'll soon be the "Death Squad President." He promises to clean up the country in 3-6 months--no crime, no drugs. He says if he must, he will kill 100,000 and dump their bodies in Manila Bay. Yup, he said it on record.