Ferdinand Marcos Junior, the son of the former dictator, won the presidential election on May 9. Back on the long -term effort of a clan to regain its place among the dynasties that make politics in the Asian archipelago.
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Thirty-six years after their dishonorable flight from the presidential palace assaulted by the crowd in 1986, the Marcos family succeeded in placing one of the people at the head of supreme power: favorite in the polls, Ferdinand Marcos Junior, says ” Bongbong “, 64, and son of the former dictator, won the presidential election with 58.8 % of the votes cast, according to results relating to almost all polling stations. This makes him the best elected president since his father, in 1969, during the last free elections before the martial law proclaimed in 1972. The scholarship fell to its lowest level for nine months.
“BBM”, as he is designated by the Philippins, had swapped for the countryside his air of eternal student and the long wick which barred his forehead for a tighter cut, with impeccable black dye, which does not is reminiscent of his father’s own and clear image. Less energetic, less brilliant than the latter, died in 1989, constantly described as a first of the class but hated for the fourteen years of dictatorship imposed in the country in the name of the fight against communism, has long had the image of ‘A spoiled child and a enjoyer. Student in Oxford in 1978, he only received only “special certificate” – and not a diploma, as confirmed by the university, in October 2021.
The outgoing president, the populist Rodrigo Duterte, turned out to be an increasingly ambiguous ally of the Marcos, in recent months, despite the choice by “BBM” of her daughter, Sara Duterte, as vice-president. This was widely elected by universal suffrage in this position. An election that she won hands down. Rodrigo Duterte refused to support a candidate – a first in this country of 110 million inhabitants for an outgoing president. In November 2021, he had quipped about “a presidential candidate whose name and father are famous”: a “soft leader”, he had misk, who “sniff of cocaine”. This outing had pushed the candidate Marcos to make a proof test that he was “clean”. Duterte’s relationship with the Marcos is ambivalent: his father was secretary of state under Marcos father before the dictatorship, but his mother took the head of anti-Marcos demonstrations during the martial law in their city of Davao.
Privileges environment
The return of a Marcos to Malacanang, the presidential palace, is the culmination of a long -term effort, which began with the return of exile of “bongbong”, of his mother, Imelda, and his Two sisters in 1991 in their northern stronghold, Ilocos Norte. Imelda, whose presidential ambitions became obvious at the time of Marcos’ physical weakening, suffering from an autoimmune disease, in the 1980s, tried twice, in vain, to run for the presidency. “Bongbong”, his older sister, Imée, and Imelda have gradually won the positions of local elected officials. Then “Bongbong” became Senator in 2010. In 2016, the vice-presidency was shortly escaped her: she was won by Leni Robredo, her unhappy rival during the presidential election which has just ended (28 % of the votes cast). Marcos Junior will file a complaint for fraud, which will not be rejected until 2021.
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