Marcos Jr poised to claim father’s crown
For half a lifetime, they have been an international joke – an emblem of the crudity, cruelty and sheer bad taste of a certain kind of Cold War-era dictatorship. However, the Marcos family, the extended family of the former dictator of the Philippines, are back, and on the verge of regaining supreme power.
Thirty-six years after Ferdinand Marcos was driven from office in a popular uprising, his son and namesake is on course to win next month’s presidential election by a landslide.
Polls show that Ferdinand Jr, known as Bongbong, has 56 per cent support, 34 points ahead of his closest rival. If he sustains this on May 9, it will be the most decisive victory in the Philippines’ democratic history, and the culmination of three decades of rehabilitation efforts by the once-reviled family.
The prospect of a Marcos victory strikes horror into the hearts of many of those who remember his father’s rule. He was initially an elected president, then a ruthless dictator, from 1965 to 1986.
Bongbong, or BBM, fled into exile with his family after his father was forced out. The older Marcos died three years later, aged 72, after being exposed as a kleptocrat who had plundered the state coffers of as much as US$10 billion.
His flamboyant widow, Imelda, famous for her immense shoe collection, eventually returned, as did Bongbong, who was met with charges of tax dodging and jailed for nine years.
Appeals quashed the jail term but not the conviction, and the Philippines’ election commission ruled last week that it was not a crime of sufficient ‘‘moral turpitude’’ to disqualify him.
His status as favourite is not a surprise. Since their return, members of the Marcos family have been running for, and winning, elected office.
They have dominated their heartland on the island of Luzon. Bongbong’s sister, Imee Marcos, a senator, was governor of the province of Ilocos Norte; her son, Matthew Manotoc, has taken over. Bongbong’s cousin, Michael Keon, is mayor of the provincial capital.
The ‘‘Solid North’’ is the basis of
Bongbong’s popularity, which also derives from shrewd campaigning and a brilliant tactical alliance. His campaign has been slick, but vapid: a broad and inoffensive message of national unity and togetherness, packaged on social media such as Facebook and TikTok.
Bongbong’s appeal is to the younger majority of the Philippines electorate, who have no memory of the torture and disappearances of his father ‘s regime. He is helped by a shadowy army of trolls who use social media to defame his opponents – above all, former human rights lawyer Leni Robredo, his nearest challenger, who defeated him to be elected vice-president six years ago.
Bongbong’s greatest coup may have been the support of Sara Duterte-Carpio, his vicepresidential running-mate.
She is mayor of Davao on the southern island of Mindanao, and delivers support from the other end of the country. She is also the daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, who is barred from running for a second term but was at one point expected to run for vicepresident, with Sara for president.
If he is elected president, Marcos will be a good friend to China.
He has already said that he will lay aside the historic ruling in the Philippines’ favour in 2016 in which a tribunal in The Hague struck down China’s claims to islands in the strategically important South China Sea. ‘‘I think we can come to an agreement,’’ he said during the election campaign.
For years, Marcos and Chinese diplomats have cultivated close relations with one another, to the extent that he has been accused by opponents of being a ‘‘Manchurian candidate’’, under the sway of a foreign power, after the 1962 film of the same name.
China has a consulate in the city of Laoag in Ilocos Norte, an unlikely base for Chinese diplomats, but the heart of Marcos territory. Officially, it promotes trade and investment in the northern Philippines; unofficially, it builds influence among the Marcosdominated political class.
Local governments in China are generous to a region with no obvious connections to them. For example, Shandong province has given medical supplies to Ilocos Norte, while in August the consulate donated 107 tonnes of rice. This bounty was ‘‘facilitated’’ by the Marcoses.