"We really don't have a culture of public service," Parreno said. "We have a well-entrenched patron-client relationship that we have inherited from three centuries of Spanish colonization."
With the Philippines facing rampant corruption, huge national debts, pervasive poverty, rebel threats and an economy falling behind a global rebound, candidates have been talking up a storm without delving too deeply into specifics.
Poe leads Arroyo in opinion polls, capitalizing on his fame among the lower classes as the fist-swinging hero of few words in action movies since the 1950s.
But questions hang over his close friendship with Estrada, himself a former actor, and his ability to deal with the nation's problems without a high school diploma or political track record.
Arroyo, an economist, is playing up her achievements among only partly successful fiscal and anti-graft reforms.
Raul Roco, a former education secretary popular with students and professionals, is running in third place as an independent candidate but some analysts suspect his campaign may run out of gas without the support of a party machine.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who accuses Arroyo's husband of salting away contributions from her 1998 campaign, enjoys support from the tiny but influential ethnic Chinese community for his no-nonsense stance on crime when he was national police chief.
But he has effectively pulled some of the opposition vote away from Poe by refusing to yield to the popular film star.
Eduardo Villanueva, a television evangelist known as "Brother Eddie," and businessman Eddie Gil also made the cut to run for president but languish at the bottom of voter surveys.
In a sign of early efforts to woo voters, Arroyo's running mate Noli de Castro, a senator and former newsreader, recently joined the president for her weekly radio address.
Personalities, not policies, tend to bring in the votes here.
But another maxim of Philippine politics -- there are no losers, only winners and those who were cheated -- is a reminder that victory must be achieved at almost any cost.
"Because things are quite close, the money is going to be running freely," Wilford said. "The problem is the Philippines has never had a political elite that has governed in the interests of the Philippines."
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