Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the strongman ousted in a 1986 army-backed 'people power' uprising, has led pre-election surveys with a seemingly insurmountable lead.
But his closest challenger, current Vice President Leni Robredo, has tapped into shock and outrage over the prospect of another Marcos recapturing the seat of power and harnessed an army of campaign volunteers to underpin her candidacy.
Eight other candidates, including former boxing star Manny Pacquiao, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and former national police chief Panfilo Lacson have lagged far behind.
The winner will take office on June 30 for a single six-year term.
Problems include a sagging economy, poverty and unemployment, decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies and the ongoing effect of COVID-19 lockdowns.
There will also be questions over how to deal with calls demanding the prosecution of outgoing populist leader Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-drug crackdown has left thousands of mostly petty crime suspects dead and sparked an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Duterte's daughter, southern Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, has topped surveys as Marcos Jr's vice-presidential running mate in an alliance of the scions of two authoritarian leaders who had long been in the crosshairs of human rights groups.
The tie-up has combined the voting power of their northern and southern political strongholds, boosting their chances but compounding worries of human rights activists.
"History may repeat itself if they win," said Myles Sanchez, a 42-year-old human rights worker.
"There may be a repeat of martial law and the drug killings that happened under their parents."
Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte have stayed away from such volatile issues in the three-month campaign and instead stuck to a battle cry of national unity, even though the presidencies of their fathers opened some of the most turbulent divisions in the country's history.
"I have learned in our campaign not to retaliate," Sara Duterte told followers on Saturday night in the final day of campaigning, where she and Marcos Jr thanked a huge crowd in a night of rap music, dance shows and fireworks near Manila Bay.
In a separate rally, Robredo thanked her supporters who jammed her star-studded sorties and waged a house-to-house battle to endorse her brand of clean and hands-on politics.
She asked them to fight for patriotic ideals beyond the elections.
"We've learned that those who have awoken will never close their eyes again," Robredo told a crowd that filled the main avenue in the capital's Makati financial district.
"It's our right to have a future with dignity and it's our responsibility to fight for it."
Aside from the presidency, more than 18,000 government posts are contested, including half of the 24-member Senate, more than 300 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as provincial and local offices across the archipelago of more than 109 million people.
About 67 million have registered to cast their ballot during the 13-hour voting, an hour longer than the midterm elections in 2019 to compensate for the expected slower queues due to social distancing and other coronavirus safeguards.
Thousands of police and military personnel were deployed to secure election precincts, specially in rural regions with a history of violent political rivalries and where communist and Muslim rebels have a presence.
In 2009, gunmen deployed by the family of southern Maguindanao province's then-governor massacred 58 people, including 32 journalists, in an attack on an election convoy that shocked the world.
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