Congress hails Marcos Jr. as new president
MANILA — Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was proclaimed the next president of the Philippines by a joint session of Congress on Wednesday following a landslide election triumph 36 years after his dictator father was ousted in a pro-democracy uprising.
The Senate and House of Representatives also declared that his separately elected vice presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, had won by a wide margin. She is the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, whose turbulent six-year term ends on June 30.
They will lead a nation battered by COVID-19 lockdowns, crushing poverty, gaping inequality, Muslim and communist insurgencies, crime and political divisions further inflamed by the May 9 election.
With his 92-year-old mother, Imelda Marcos, his wife, family and siblings beside him, Marcos Jr.’s hands were raised by the Senate president and House speaker in a plenary hall bedecked with a huge Philippine flag to applause from the audience, which included diplomats.
“I’m humbled,” he later told reporters. “I thank our people and, beyond that, I promise you that we may not be perfect but we will always strive to perfection.”
Marcos Jr., a 64-year-old former governor, congressman and senator, has refused to acknowledge or apologize for massive human rights violations and plunder under his father’s rule and has defended his legacy.
When they take office, Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte will likely face demands to prosecute her father over thousands of killings of mostly poor suspects under his yearslong crackdown on illegal drugs. The deaths are currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Marcos Jr. received more than 31 million votes and Sara Duterte more than 32 million out of more than 55 million votes cast in the election. It was the first majority presidential victory in the Asian democracy in decades.
During the campaign, they avoided controversial issues and focused on a call for national unity, although their fathers’ presidencies opened some of the most volatile divisions in the country’s history. Marcos Jr. appealed to be judged “not by my ancestors, but by my actions.”
Sen. Imee Marcos, his sister, thanked those who voted for him after what she described as decades of “ridicule and oppression.”
“We’re very, very grateful for a second chance,” she told reporters before the proclamation. “Our family went through a lot and after 1986, we faced all sorts of cases, ridicule and oppression” for nearly four decades.