First I should disclose this is not my country as I’m an (expat) immigrant here.
The trustworthiness of the political system in the Philippines is somewhere between 1 and 2, at best.
Cons
1. The obvious con to mention here is the current President, Rodrigo Duterte.
It is rumored that he was the main operator behind death squads in the town where he became mayor. While he has never publicly admitted such, at times even denied, he has provided the country with sufficient anecdotes to make him fearsome enough.. An example here would be the anecdote that he once told a police squad that if he had killed a person, they could do so too.
2. The country, while outlawed, is mostly governed by political dynasties. Family name is of utmost importance and can be an easy ticket to whether C-level or VP in the larger [strike]oligarchic[strike] corporations or even a political career.
Additionally, for leaders “pork barrel politics” are still rife. The previous president was known as the “Porkbarrel King” for how he often wielded the threat of withholding porkbarrel for representatives if laws weren’t passed.
3. Press freedom comes at a premium. Since Duterte, the leading online news outlet, Rappler, has been investigated by the local SEC and even lost its press accreditation within the Palace. Rappler is appealing.
The other outlet most critical of the regime of Duterte, the Inquirer, has since been purchased by a business contact of Duterte. Bloomberg published a great feature some months ago about the actual state of press freedom, or rather how Duterte works social media and the press[1].
In other words, impunity is at a high and only very little improvement, if any, has taken place since the Ampatuan Massacre[2]. In fact, Human Rights Watch mentioned that Duterte plunged the country in its worst human rights crisis since the rule of Ferdinand Marcos[3].
Are the Philippines Corrupt?
According t the Corruption Perception Index 2017 (CPI), the Philippines score 34 (rating from 1-100, with 100 highest), placing it below Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and even many African nations like Rwanda and the country is ranked 111th out of 180 nations listed.
[1] Bloomberg feature: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-07/how-rodrigo-duterte-turned-facebook-into-a-weapon-with-a-little-help-from-facebook
[2] Ampatuan Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguindanao_massacre
[3]HRW 2018 report on Philippines: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/philippines