Philippines

The Philippines operates as a presidential democracy with a political system dominated by dynastic families — roughly 70% of congressional representatives come from political dynasties, and provincial governorships are routinely inherited within clans. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) send home roughly $35 billion annually in remittances, constituting approximately 9% of GDP and serving as the economy's most reliable external income source. The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry employs over 1.5 million workers and generates roughly $30 billion in revenue, making the Philippines the world's second-largest BPO market after India. The Marcos family's return to the presidency in 2022 — Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the dictator overthrown in 1986 — demonstrated the political system's dynastic resilience: the same families that were displaced return within a generation because their networks of patronage, land ownership, and local power survive institutional changes.