The competition for the presidency, between the only son of a “strongman” and a widow, resonates with the enduring friction between a woman-centered native culture and the infrastructure of patriarchal political dynasties bred by colonialism in the Philippines.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's pardon of US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton in the killing of Jennifer Laude, a transPinay, in a hotel room in Olongapo reflects the country's historic subservience to US military interests.