the most important election in a generation is about to take place.

The namesake son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos

is poised to be president.

(CHEERING)

Marcos Jr's rise has divided the nation

and become a referendum on fact vs fiction.

Fuelling it all is a social media machine that's rewriting history.

How is social media influencing this election?

It will determine who wins.

I mean, how crazy is that, right?

WOMAN: The young ones, they don't know that this happened,

and they believe that the Marcoses had a good government.

All of these lies against the Marcos are all propaganda.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

In Tarlac City, two hours north of Manila,

the streets hum with a familiar cry.

BBM!

Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr is in town

and thousands of local fans have come to support him.

BBM, BBM!

(HORN HONKS)

Known as Bongbong, or BBM,

his initials are more than a catchy slogan.

They're part of an elaborate effort to distance the Marcos family

from their brutal history.

BBM!

OK! OK!

OK! OK.

WOMAN: Marcos have done some things that people would disagree,

but there are still a lot of positives.

So, for me, that's the reason why I'm still supporting Bongbong.

Why not give it a try, right?

(CHEERING AND SHOUTING)

Thousands of people have been turning up here since dawn

just to catch a glimpse of the man

that they hope will be the next president of the Philippines.

BBM! BBM!

The excitement here is incredible,

when you think this family was run out of the Philippines

a few decades ago.

But the Marcoses never went away,

and they've been masterful at using social media

to attract a new generation of supporters

who don't know - or remember -

the dark reality of the Marcos Sr dictatorship.

(CHEERING)

Marcos Jr avoids journalists,

preferring vloggers like Ruben Gelio,

who livestream, comment and post only positive messages about him.

Do you think you're more powerful

than the mainstream media following the campaign?

Um...

I think so.

Because some of the media is so biased about Marcos

and they never show anything that Bongbong Marcos...

..a good...a good deed.

And as vloggers, we show the other side of the coin to the people.

So, this is the real Marcos, not the...

..not the one that mainstream said.

(CHEERING)

Marcos Jr has got more than 10 million followers

across Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter.

His campaign is turbocharged by his own social media team,

who produce hours of videos reframing the Marcos story.

If there is one thing that I think

clearly sets my father apart,

it's that he had a very clear vision for our country.

He viewed his work as president as one of nation-building -

of building up our country to make it better.

(CHEERING)

Leading polls with 56% support,

Marcos Jr seems unstoppable.

BBM! BBM!

One of the Marcos campaign's staunchest allies

is this man.

Attorney Larry Gadon!

Vying for a Senate seat in these elections,

Larry Gadon is a fixture at Marcos rallies.

The suspended lawyer is notorious

for his crude, violent and sexist language.

But the Marcos Jr campaign says he's been loyal.

How did you feel when Ferdinand Marcos Sr was removed from power?

I...I was crying for a whole week.

I did not... I wasn't able to go out of the house.

I was really hurt by what happened to President Marcos.

So, do you feel that this is a comeback of sorts?

Yes. Bongbong Marcos is a comeback for the Marcoses.

I think, uh, people get tired of,

uh, the mudslinging against the Marcoses,

and, uh, the people now realise

that the best president and the best administration we had,

uh, was President Marcos.

(BOTH SING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

For two decades, Ferdinand Marcos Sr and his wife, Imelda,

ruled like King and Queen.

Although he was elected in 1965

and again in '69,

the charismatic couple were a package deal.

Initially, the economy grew under Marcos

and the President spent big on infrastructure.

But cracks appeared.

NEWS REPORTER: He has proclaimed himself President, Prime Minister,

chief of the armed forces,

and one-man government, all in one.

In 1972, toward the end of his final term in office,

Marcos Sr declared martial law.

NEWS REPORTER: Elections have been cancelled.

Criticism of his actions and his regime has been outlawed.

His political opponents have been jailed.

(SHOUTING)

Thousands were murdered, tortured or disappeared,

while Ferdinand and Imelda blew millions

on property, fine art and jewellery.

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

By 1986, the Philippines could take no more...

NEWS REPORTER: The economy is in ruins.

The country has been bitterly divided,

emotionally and politically.

..a popular uprising driving the Marcoses into exile,

where Marcos Sr later died.

(DOG YAPS)

WOMAN: So, what are the updates about the case you filed?

Of course, we suspect that it's going to come out

in favour of Marcos.

Tina Bawagan and Etta Rosales are sisters.

Both were arrested and tortured during martial law

and both have devoted their lives

to holding the Marcos dictatorship to account.

So, we're going to file to appeal this to the Supreme Court.

Because if you don't, you know, you're stupid.

The sisters come from a military family.

Tina was in primary school when Marcos Sr became president.

You know, we had a pretty good life.

My mother used to campaign for Marcos

because she and my father knew him personally.

She soon learned of his corruption.

Tina was 27

and a member of the underground resistance to the Marcos regime

when she was detained by soldiers.

I was seated in a chair, handcuffed.

Then they started asking questions.

None of my answers satisfied him.

So, he slapped my face.

Then he'd slap me again. Slap, slap, slap.

And then they would put a sharp object over my chest.

And then they would fondle my breasts.

And then the worst of it was that they put an object inside my vagina.

And I shouted, but it was like no-one could hear.

The physical torture only stopped

when soldiers got word of her family's military connections.

But Tina remained in detention for a month.

You know, there are so many other stories,

a lot more horrible than mine.

I know of some women who were raped

but they cannot tell it because there is...there's a stigma.

It's important to tell it again and again and again,

because so many of our countrymen don't know it anymore.

The young ones, they don't know that this happened

and they believe that the Marcoses

had a good...Marcos had a good government,

a benevolent government -

that we were fine then.

We have to continue to tell the story

so that it doesn't happen again.

At a quiet shrine in the capital,

those who fought against the Marcos regime are remembered.

Despite many eyewitness accounts and official reports about the violence,

Larry Gadon dismisses it all.

LARRY GADON: That is all propaganda.

No-one was killed, disappeared or tortured?

Those are rebels.

They choose to fight the government,

then, if they die, that's their fault.

Don't tell me you will fight the government

and you will just receive a slap on your face.

They were fighting a dictatorship.

Those are propaganda. We are all free during that time.

The majority of the Filipino people

do not believe those lies, those propaganda,

of human rights violations.

Otherwise, they would not go to BBM's rallies.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

WOMAN: (ON RADIO) Storm signals are now up

as Agaton intensifies into a tropical storm.

Expected gale force winds in Leyte.

On the island of Leyte, in the central Philippines,

people have a special place in their hearts for the Marcoses.

(DRUMMING)

Imelda Marcos grew up here, in Tacloban,

where her family dominates local politics.

(CHEERING)

(CHEERING)

Tonight's rally is a family affair.

Marcos Jr's three sons are beloved on social media

and, this time, he's brought his youngest, Vincent, along.

This is how dynasties are made.

If Marcos Jr pulls this election victory off,

the family will emerge as the most powerful political clan

in the country.

(CHEERING ON RECORDING)

Chemmy Rivas was born in Tacloban

and, like so many people I spoke to,

her loyalty to the Marcoses goes back generations.

She spends about five hours on social media a day

and it's reinforced her views about the Marcos family.

The platform is awash with videos like this,

which claim the Marcoses weren't corrupt.

(KIDS SHOUT PLAYFULLY)

WOMAN: 100% of Filipinos on the internet are on Facebook.

Facebook is our internet.

Journalist Maria Ressa is the founder of news outlet Rappler

and a fighter in the global war against disinformation.

There were definitely Marcos networks of disinformation.

A lot of them were taken down, but then they've regenerated,

and this will help pave the way for a win.

The elections in the Philippines on May 9th are emblematic

of everything that is wrong, right?

How does Ferdinand Marcos Jr,

the son of a dictator

who was ousted in a people power revolt 36 years earlier...

..how can history have been changed so drastically?

With the help of social media platforms.

For years, Maria Ressa and her team

have been mapping the spread of disinformation networks

in the Philippines.

MARIA RESSA: When we looked at this over time,

from 2016 all the way to 2022,

what we saw was that these networks began to take over

the centre of the information ecosystem

and slowly push out the traditional news groups.

And these news organisations that thought they had tremendous power

were essentially pushed to the side

and the centre of the information ecosystem

was taken over by disinformation networks.

And what...

In January, Twitter suspended more than 300 accounts and hashtags

promoting Marcos Jr's campaign.

The company found they breached its rules on spam and manipulation.

You cannot have integrity of elections

if you don't have integrity of facts.

And what social media has done is not only to make facts debatable,

but to actually spread lies faster and further than facts.

Ruben, tell me, what time is it in New York?

It's 7:25 in New York, PM.

Lawyer Ruben Carranza was a government investigator

charged with tracking down the billions of dollars stolen

by the Marcoses and their associates.

One estimate that the commission I served in continues to use

is somewhere between $5 billion to as much as $10 billion.

How did they get away with it?

They were able to hide the corruption they committed

by using political violence and repression.

At the same time, they were able to steal as much as they could