Here are the facts to consider when answering the question:
(1) The Philippines’ current Chief Executive is legally in power and serving a term he was elected to serve.
(2) The Philippines currently has a functioning legislature composed of freely-elected representatives who feel perfectly free to express a diverse range of competing points of view.
(3) The Philippine Supreme Court is fully-functional and fully-independent and acts within the framework of the law and within range of due process.
(4) A thriving and profitable news media industry exists and the three biggest networks and publishers are seen to be mainly hostile to the current government. This is evidence that there are no measures instigated by the state currently in effect that directly aim to stifle dissent and free discourse.
(5) The police is under civilian command and its personnel can be held accountable to offenses against the law by the current criminal justice system.
(6) Filipinos are free to travel anywhere in the country without being subject to routine identification checks by police or military personnel.
(7) State mass broadcast media is not given preferential treatment and private broadcast media are under no obligation to broadcast its content.
Conclusion:
Simple. The Philippines is not governed by an authoritarian regime nor do Filipinos experience any outcomes of governance commonly-associated with “dictatorships”. People who assert that the Philippine government is a “dictatorship” are making false claims.
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