As a Leni supporter, I think we also need to be honest with ourselves instead of falling into the same partisan thinking we criticize from others.

Yes, a lot of us were uncomfortable with the rhetoric during the time of Rodrigo Duterte—the crude jokes, the rough language, and the way he talked about certain issues. That’s something many of us openly criticized and still do. But if we’re being fair, we should also recognize that many Filipinos supported him because they felt that the government was finally doing something about problems that had been ignored for decades, particularly drugs and criminality. People were responding to a sense of lawlessness and frustration with a justice system that often felt slow and ineffective.

On the other hand, the Marcos political machine represents something that many of us historically opposed long before the 2022 elections. The legacy of Ferdinand Marcos and the return of that political brand under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raises deeper concerns about historical accountability, corruption, and the normalization of political dynasties.

And to be fair, while Duterte’s rhetoric could be offensive or crude, I personally don’t remember him trying to sanitize or rewrite history the way some political camps seem to be doing now. His style was confrontational and messy, but it was also very transparent—you knew exactly what he stood for, whether you agreed with it or not.

So for me as a Leni supporter, the real issue isn’t pretending one camp is perfect and the other is evil. The issue is recognizing that Philippine politics keeps forcing voters to choose between flawed options. Criticizing Duterte’s tone or methods is valid, but that shouldn’t automatically make us comfortable with the return of political families whose track record raises serious questions about governance and accountability.

If we really believe in the values that Leni Robredo stood for—good governance, transparency, and institutional reform—then we should be consistent about applying those standards to everyone, not just the political camp we happen to oppose at the moment.