Son Of Ex-Dictator Ferdinand Marcos On Cusp Of Winning Philippines Presidential Race

Topline

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. secured a commanding lead in the Philippines’ presidential race Monday, according to preliminary results, setting the stage for Marcos—whose father was an authoritarian ruler until his 1986 ouster—to replace strongman President Rodrigo Duterte.

Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., speaks … [+] to the members of the media in Manila on May 9.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Marcos, a former senator and governor whose nickname is “Bongbong,” had almost 29.7 million votes as of early Tuesday morning local time, more than double the 14.2 million votes held by second-place candidate and current Vice President Leonor Robredo, according to unofficial results from broadcaster ABS-CBN.

Legendary boxer and senator Manny Pacquiao—who launched a presidential bid last year focused on anti-corruption efforts—is in a distant third place, with nearly 3.4 million votes.

Surprising Fact

Marcos’ running mate is also the child of a president: Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio is currently leading in the race for vice president, according to ABS-CBN (in the Philippines, presidential and vice-presidential candidates run for office separately).

Key Background

Marcos’ impending victory follows years of efforts to rehabilitate his family’s image. His father Ferdinand Marcos was elected to the presidency in 1965 and remained in office for 21 years, much of it under a martial law regime that was tied to thousands of arrests, disappearances and killings according to Amnesty International. The elder Marcos was also accused of stealing billions of dollars from the nation’s coffers, fueling a lavish lifestyle in a debt-ridden country: His wife Imelda Marcos—whose massive collection of shoes and jewelry is often cited as a symbol of the family’s alleged excesses—was convicted of corruption in 2018. He eventually left office and fled to Hawaii in 1986 amid protests, dying three years later. Despite this legacy, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s social media-driven presidential campaign has sought to reframe his father’s time in office as an era of strong economic growth, denying widespread reports of corruption and human rights abuses during the Marcos era.

Tangent

Term limits barred Duterte—who has led the Philippines since 2016—from running for a second term. He said last year he will retire from politics, bringing an end to his populist and often-harsh mode of governing: His government has been accused of killing scores of people in its pursuit of drug traffickers, and during the pandemic, he has threatened to shoot quarantine violators and arrest coronavirus vaccine skeptics to “inject the vaccine into their buttocks.”

What To Watch For

If Marcos is certified as the winner, he may continue some of Duterte’s policies. Like Duterte, Marcos is widely expected to seek stronger ties between the Philippines and China amid disputes between the two countries over control of the South China Sea, though he has also pledged to remain allies with the United States. Marcos has also suggested he will continue Duterte’s war on drugs but devote more resources to rehabilitation instead of enforcement, and he likely won’t assist with an International Criminal Court investigation into evidence of extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s drug war.