The story has its cycle in the Philippines.
A powerful family ousted from power 36 years ago, accused of greed and corruption, is returning to the country’s presidential palace.
The son and namesake of the former dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, also known as “Bong Bong”, today claimed a landslide victory in the presidential election. According to the election results, Marcos Jr. has collected more than 50% of the votes.
It’s a big blow to those in the Philippines who fought to hold Marcos accountable for the abuses of the old days, the BBC notes.
The Markos family never apologized for the mismanagement, nor did they return the national money they are accused of stealing.
How did Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos do it? And what are the implications for the 110 million people of the Philippines and their place in the world?
In 1986, public outrage over Marcos’s regime led to the overthrow of Ferdinand and the expulsion of him and his family from the Philippines.
However, after only five years of exile, the family returned and immediately began to return to political circles.
Bong Bong lives all his life close to power, except for years abroad. Winning the presidency is something he has been preparing for all his life.
Imelda Marcos
Other members of his family have held political office since they were allowed to return to the Philippines, including his mother, Imelda, and his older sister, Ime. Imelda even ran for the presidency just one year after she returned in 1992.
Imelda became famous for the thousands of expensive pairs of shoes found in her closets.
Marcos relies heavily on their relationship with the also strong Duterte family. Rodrigo Duterte was the current president of the Philippines.
Marcos’s return to power has been prepared for some time with the “help” of social media, which has been fueled by hundreds of distorted videos and posts: Marcos’s regime was presented as a golden age of prosperity instead of a junta, with human rights violations, corruption and almost economic collapse of the country.
This campaign started at least a decade ago, with hundreds of videos on Youtube, which were later reposted on Facebook pages.
This whole operation managed to convince millions of Filipinos that the slander of Marcos after their fall was unfair, that the stories of unrivaled greed were untrue.
In addition, there are myths widely believed in the poorest parts of the Philippines that Marcos do indeed have enormous wealth in offshore accounts or hidden gold hoards, but all of them are there to benefit the people as soon as they return to power.
The disinformation campaign has also been helped by the failure of governments since 1986 to improve the lives of the poorest Filipinos, which has certainly led to great frustration.
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