Former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist between 1965 and 1986, leads the count of presidential elections in the country this Monday (9) with a wide advantage and is expected to be elected. for the post.
Better known as Bongbong, he has two-thirds of the votes — 21.7 million, more than double the 10.3 million for vice president Leni Robredo — with 66.1% of the votes cast, according to an unofficial count. of the Election Commission.
The massive leadership bolsters the odds of a once unthinkable return to rule by the Marcos family, 36 years after their patriarch was overthrown in a “people power” revolution and his family’s humiliating retreat into exile.
Marcos’ spokesman, Vic Rodriguez, said he was not yet ready to talk about the victory. “It’s not over until it’s over,” he told CNN Philippines.
The Marcos family returned from exile in the 1990s and has since been a powerful force in politics, maintaining their influence thanks to their long-standing connections.
Marcos was governor, deputy and senator; his sister, Imee, is currently a senator; and mother Imelda, the dictator’s influential widow, served four terms in the Chamber of Deputies.
Marcos, 64, offered no political platform, but his presidency is expected to continue current leader Rodrigo Duterte, whose hard-line approach has proved popular and helped him quickly consolidate power.
The results so far demonstrate the huge success of the candidate’s massive social media operation. According to critics, he sought to discredit historical accounts of cronyism, looting and brutality during his family’s two decades of rule, about half of them under Martial Law.
The Marcos family denies embezzling billions of dollars from state coffers. Many of the current candidate’s supporters, born after the 1986 uprising, are convinced that past narratives about corruption were invented by his opponents.
On Monday night, as the unofficial votes were counted, a small group of supporters gathered outside the campaign headquarters, chanting “Marcos, Marcos, Marcos” in ecstasy.
Analysts are betting that, with the new Marcos and Duterte in power, Philippine politics will consolidate in the populist camp — and the fear is that it will resume its authoritarian path. In any case, the new president takes over a country shaken by the Covid pandemic, which has made poverty increase and reach 23% of the population.
The new leader will also inherit tensions in what the government calls the West Philippine Sea, known around the world as the South China Sea, one of Asia’s biggest hotspots — China claims control of the region, something that nations in the Southeast Asia and Western powers contest.
