Let the people decide

Many have sneered at former senator Bongbong Marcos’s declaration that he is eyeing a return to Malacañang, this time as president. They vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent another Marcos from taking over the reins of the country’s highest elective position.

For the first time, Marcos expressed his desire to run for the presidency in the 2022 national elections, promising to form an egalitarian form of government, during an interview with the Financial Times, a newspaper based in London.

Well, many have long been opposed to any Marcos return to Malacañang. The late dictator’s widow, Imelda, had tried in the 1992 presidential elections but landed fifth among seven candidates.

For thousands of Filipinos, the experiences they had suffered –especially the human rights abuses– during the darkest years of the country’s history under the Ferdinand Marcos regime cannot just simply be forgotten.

For them, a Bongbong presidency will definitely be an extension of his father’s regime during which corruption and human rights abuses were rampant. So they would be expected to vigorously campaign this early against his presidential ambitions.

However, there has been no law that bars Bongbong from running for the highest post in the land in 2022. The doors of Malacañang have always been open to all those qualified to be president, Bongbong included, as long as he or she has the mandate from majority of the Filipinos.

The real issue here is whether Filipinos still want a Marcos to be president. Of course, Bongbong has the charisma, a thing he perfectly capitalized in his neck-and-neck battle against Leni Robredo for the vice presidency in 2016.

Many think that as president, Bongbong can even perform better than his father knowing the fact that he has already learned the missteps of the latter. He, however, has a lot more explaining to do to convince the Filipinos that his is a government that is not a duplication of his father’s but a leadership committed to national unity and development.