The Church and Hollywood are a potent mix in Philippine culture. Thus, when incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo-who is seeking a new term-filed her candidacy on January 5 for the May elections, she made sure she had both. She led a crowd of about 5,000 people in a prayer vigil and holy mass at the Manila Cathedral beginning at 3:30 am and marched six hours later to the nearby Commission on Elections waving the party's colors (which are the colors of the Philippine flag). After she filed her certificate of candidacy, the next stop was a rally in a plaza where the President introduced a new coalition of political parties named K-4, clearly resembling the popular Taiwanese pop singing group, F-4, that has recently made waves in the country. K-4 stands for virtues she says she and her team stand for-the Coalition of Honesty and Experience for the Future.

With Fernando Poe Jr., the popular king of Philippine movies, as her main rival, President Arroyo faces a tough campaign. She may have the track record in government service-she was former senator and vice president before she was thrust into the presidency after Joseph Estrada was deposed in 2001-but given the mass following of Poe, President Arroyo needs more than platform and money to win. The missing element? Show business. And that's what exactly she did: she packed her slate with celebrities. Mrs. Arroyo picked a very popular senator and former TV news anchor as vice presidential candidate: Noli de Castro. A hefty 85 percent of Philippine households own a TV set and this explains the extreme popularity of de Castro, who used to anchor the number one news program on the largest TV network in the country. De Castro made tabloid TV news popular and made history when he garnered more than 16 million votes when he ran for the Senate in 2001, the highest ever recorded of a national candidate in the country.

For her senatorial team, Arroyo picked, among others, two former movie actors who have been in local politics, and one senator who is a former top basketball player. The two actors received the loudest applause in the first K-4 rally.

Too much politics and the massive influence of the mass media on people's choice of leaders have set back the Philippines. The election of Estrada in 1998 epitomized the mix of show business and politics and Estrada has indeed opened the floodgates. Today, the country is experiencing the phenomenon of TV journalists winning national elections. One reason is: political parties are becoming irrelevant, says political analyst Antonio Gatmaitan. “Media have taken the position of fiscalizer…while politicians wait for the next elections,”he explains.

As a result, growth has suffered. The economies of Thailand and the Philippines used to be known as twins. But that's no longer the case. Thailand has received over $20 billion in foreign direct investment in the past six years, around three times more than the Philippines'. Thailand's per capita GNP in 2001 was $1,900 compared with $1,000 for the Philippines.

Still, this election is unique because it is the first time after Marcos that a sitting president is running for the same post. Thus, Mrs. Arroyo will be, in a way, campaigning against herself on issues like her population policy-she is against contraception because she does not want to offend the Catholic church; the promises she has yet to fulfill, her husband's link to corruption, and her flip-flopping on several issues. For example, she reversed herself in her declaration that she will not run in the May 2004 elections, and that she will not lift the moratorium on death penalty.

Poe, an aging action star (64) has been in show business for 48 years. But politics is a different territory. Poe, known to be intolerant of a critical movie press, hasn't given one-on-one interviews. He speaks in one-liners and only talks to the press in ambush interviews. He has not accepted invitations to participate in debates. When he declared his bid for the presidency, he only said, “My name is Fernando Poe Jr. and I am running for President.” He has not laid out a platform of governance (he is a high school dropout) but his mere appearance attracts crowds. His aides are still putting together a team of advisers.

But he has found an equally popular running mate in Senator Loren Legarda. A highly ambitious politician, she was a TV news anchor in the same network as de Castro's. Their senatorial slate includes scions of deposed presidents, the daughter of former President Ferdinand Marcos and the son of detained ex-president Estrada, as well as other players in the 20-year Marcos reign. Poe is a close friend of Estrada, having been together in the movies. Poe, more than Estrada, is respected by his colleagues in show business.

Two other candidates are determined to hurdle an arduous campaign: opposition senator Panfilo Lacson and former senator and education secretary Raul Roco. Lacson, former police chief, has fashioned himself as an anti-crime and anti-graft crusader. For the first time in Philippine history, a candidate is running alone as a presidential candidate. He has no vice president nor a senatorial slate. His close association with fugitives from justice and rumored links to narcopolitics are points against him.

Among the four aspirants, it is Roco who has the cleanest image. He appears, too, to be the most capable in terms of intellectual skills. As education secretary, he was able to curb corruption and save the department hundreds of millions of pesos. But he has a weak political machinery. And with very little money, as well as less popularity compared to Poe, he could be in for a bruising fight. With Poe looming as a likely winner, some Roco supporters may end up voting for Arroyo to fend off the actor's victory. They fear that if votes are divided between Roco and Arroyo, it will be a sure win for Poe. Arroyo, they say, is the “devil that we know.”