A huge crowd cheered for controversial Philippine presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at his election rally in Taguig City in the capital Manila.

Video taken on April 24 shows the supporters' thundering chants as they screamed the names of Marcos and his vice-presidential running mate Inday Sara Duterte. The pair are leading the polls according to the latest election survey released early April by research firm Pulse Asia Inc.

Controversial election poll frontrunner Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is 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 the elder 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.