Marcos family poised to return to power
“History could come full circle in the Philippines next month,” says Julie McCarthy on NPR. “Decades after dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in a popular uprising that laid bare the brutality and sweeping corruption of his regime, his son is poised to revive the family’s political fortunes in next month’s presidential elections.” Ferdinand Jr – known as Bongbong – is the favourite in the elections on 9 May, even though his father’s 21 years in power saw the “arrests of 70,000 people, the deaths of nearly 4,000, the stifling of free speech and the persecution of political rivals”.
Marcos has won support due to fading memories and a savvy alliance with Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte, who is running for vice president, says Chad de Guzman in Time. “They make a formidable team, and are far ahead of other contenders… Marcos had an unprecedented 45-point lead over his closest rival – current vice president Leni Robredo – in a February survey.” His popularity is particularly high among the under-30s – those who do not recall the time before his father was ousted in 1986 – thanks in part to effective targeting by his social-media team.
But victory would also reflect dissatisfaction with the alternatives. “Many Filipinos have become disillusioned with the country’s democracy,” say Sui-Lee Wee and Camille Elemia in The New York Times. “Poverty is widespread, income inequality remains high and few people trust their elected leaders.” Duterte himself came to power in 2016 by promising radical change, helping to usher in “a new era of strongman politics that has been embraced by many across the country”.
Marcos’s presidency will look similar to his father’s, says Joel Pablo Salud on Rappler. “What his father had done – the wholesale persecution and closure of the independent press – he will seek to outdo if only to prove that he can.” The Philippines is still suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic, a slow economy and ruined political institutions, but Marcos – a man of “little [or] no accomplishment” – will not fix this. Instead, he will continue Duterte’s path of strengthening ties with China, at the expense of national security.