Phillipine Elections

I keep monitoring the Phillipine presidential election on google news. Its interesting to me because from what I've seen, the current president (Gloria Arroyo) has been one of the best leaders for that country in its history. She has really taken on the charge of cleaning the phillipines of corruption, drugs, and poverty. Well, her opposition has put what I consider a puppet up for election, Mr. Fernando Poe Jr. He is a famous action hero from their movies (at least that's what information I've been able to glean on him). He is your typical left leaning socialist type politician. At least, he has run on those kinds of issues (free housing, free health care, etc.)
Supporters of President Arroyo claim that if he gets elected, they will be plunged back into the old ways of corruption and increased poverty. There have been 114 deaths related to this election, mostly folks being killed in fights at the polls and such. Here are some good articles from google news on the subject.