Ferdinand Marcos left office as president of the Philippines in 1986, and like with Robert Mugabe's resignation from the Zimbabwean presidency on Tuesday, it wasn't a violent transition either.

But while we're three decades removed from Marcos' departure, 'Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe' is a chapter not yet written.

Mugabe's resignation took a little longer than expected after 37 years in office, but it's been a peaceful transition of power from him to Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Recently Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in the Philippines, where he called out their current president, Rodrigo Duterte, for human rights violations.

Icasiana de Gala is originally from the Philippines, and is the executive director of the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre in Swift Current, and remembers a time of jubiliation just over three decades ago.

"In 1986 Marcos, who had been a president for over 20 years I believe, was taken out of his office through peaceful means, actually, and of course with intervention of other unknown forces, maybe. But there was so much euphoria from people - 'yay, we won, we won,' and the expectation was everything will be okay. But then it never is," said de Gala.

Now human rights groups are saying the Philippine government is responsible for killing thousands of drug addicts and dealers.

"You cannot just rely on one person to do everything for you," de Gala said. "I mean we had [Corazon] Aquino then as president. But there was so much euphoria that people expected so much in such a short time. But progress requires time, requires a lot of work, requires a lot of help from the people themselves. And the Philippines is now, again - a lot of Filippinos will dispute me - but the present condition right now, I'm not sure whether it's a good condition or a bad condition."

In a response to Trudeau's criticism of Duterte for his human rights track record, de Gala - as a Canadian - was proud.

"Someone had to say it in his face, so kudos to Mr. Trudeau for doing that... It shows so much about Canadians as well. We value human rights, we value people's rights. So we will say to you. We value it wherever we are. We don't just value it within Canada."

Many are indeed glad to have Mugabe gone, but there is plenty of work to do so that it can be a different story than how things have gone in the Philippines.