Dictator Marcos’s only son has eyes on presidency

MORE THAN three decades after a popular uprising ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, his son is girding for a return to the presidential palace where he grew up.

While the next election to replace President Rodrigo R. Duterte isn’t due until 2022, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says his decision to run may hinge on whether a court upholds a legal challenge to the results of last year’s vice-presidential election that he led in the early count then narrowly lost in the end. Winning that post would strengthen his chances to succeed Mr. Duterte.

“That’s what you want to be,” Mr. Marcos, known by the nickname Bongbong, said in an interview on Tuesday when asked about his presidential ambitions. “Every private in the army wants to be a general. Every janitor wants to be a CEO.”

Mr. Marcos, 60, is one of the most divisive political figures in the Philippines, where roughly 3,000 people died and thousands more were tortured when his father suspended elections a year ahead of schedule and declared martial law in the 1970s. Despite the family history, Mr. Marcos won 14.1 million votes in last year’s election, the most of anyone besides Mr. Duterte and Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

ROCK-STAR DREAMS

Mr. Marcos is seen as intelligent and a skilled communicator, but questions remain over how he’d treat the power brokers that backed the ouster of his father if he were to take office, according to Bob Herrera-Lim, a managing director with Teneo Strategy, which advises companies on investments.

“Any investor would have to at least look at the possibility of greater political polarization,” he said. “They would not automatically scratch the Philippines off, but the Marcos name still has a lot of baggage.”

Mr. Marcos is still hoping he’ll soon become vice-president, an election that is conducted separately from the presidency in the Philippines. While the Supreme Court allowed a recount in three provinces that Mr. Marcos claims would show massive cheating, the ballot boxes haven’t been transferred to Manila where the votes will be counted. The case could take years to resolve.

At the exclusive Manila Golf Club near the city’s financial district, Mr. Marcos said last week that as a teenager he dreamed of becoming either a rock star or an astronaut.

“My father sort of wanted me to enter politics,” said Mr. Marcos, who has three kids of his own. “He sort of forced me and pushed in that way.”

Following street protests against election fraud in 1986, Mr. Marcos fled to Hawaii with his parents and three sisters. Shortly after the death of his father, Mr. Marcos decided to return to the Philippines in 1991 at the age of 35. — Bloomberg