Former President Benigno Aquino III said on Sunday that there were some people who want to bring back dictatorship.

Aquino made the statement as the country marked the 32nd anniversary of Edsa People Power, a bloodless revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos and catapulted his mother, Corazon Aquino, to power.

"Dictatorship has many faces; there are even other personalities who want to bring this back - to deprive of the right process and to place in the hand of one person the determination of what is right or not, and who is innocent or guilty," he said in his Twitter post.

The former president was apparently referring to the bloody war against illegal drugs by the Duterte administration. Over 4,000 people have already been killed for their alleged involvement in narcotics since July 1, 2016 until February this year.

Quoting writer George Santayana, Aquino said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Some quarters have said that there is creeping dictatorship under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte, in his previous speeches, admitted that he has to impose dictatorial style of running the government in order to address the many problems in the country.

But he has vowed to step down from his post as soon as his term ends in 2022 or even earlier once a new federal form of government is put in place. Celerina Monte/DMS