Local priests ditched their custom of shunning politics and endorsed Philippine presidential candidate Leni Robredo at her election rally in Nueva Ecija province on Monday.

Video shows the clergymen shouting Robredo's campaign slogan before raising the Philippine flag and raising her hands as they pitched for her onstage on April 25.

The politician had earlier visited the vote-rich province on March 22, but returned to woo voters in its smaller towns.

Priests from the country's influential Roman Catholic Church, despite being averse to making endorsements, have thrown their support behind Robredo and her running mate Senator Francis Pangilinan. In a statement, more than 1,000 holy men from the Clergy for the Moral Choice said: 'Of all the presidential candidates that could prevent the return of the family who caused us misery and pain, no one can surpass the potential of Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.

'Our country is in danger of being ruled once again by those who have made it suffer; a son and heir of his father who ruled us for a long time... Will we allow ourselves to fall once more for their deceit, their false smiles, words, and promises?'

Robredo is vying for the presidency of the Philippines, and has chosen the colour pink to brand her campaign. She is competing against nine other candidates, including controversial election poll frontrunner Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Human rights monitor Amnesty International said at least 3,240 were killed, 34,000 were tortured, and 70,000 were jailed during Marcos’s brutal 14-year reign under martial law. His family is believed to have amassed a staggering 5 to 10 billion USD as they plundered the national coffers and plunged the Philippines into debt. The Philippine Commission on Good Governance was established to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth after they fled the country in 1986.

A probe by news agency AFP said that ‘false and misleading claims have flooded Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter in the lead-up to the May 9 polls, pounding Filipinos with a relentless barrage of propaganda on platforms’ in support of Ferdinand Marcos Junior, who uses the nickname ‘Bongbong’.

The Philippines will be holding its national elections on May 9 this year.