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MANILA – Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the late dictator, whose family robbed billions of dollars, was elected landslide president of the Philippines, according to preliminary results, just 36 years after his father was ousted in a historic revolution.
For critics, this marks a further retreat for a nation – once admired as one of the few democracies in the region – that continues to follow the path of populism. Marcos succeeds the outspoken President Rodrigo Duterte, best known for his harsh insults and the war on drugs that killed thousands.
His daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio is Marcos’s vice-president and the next vice-president. The tandem, dubbed “Uniteam” because of its supposed message of unity, is a political marriage of the two most powerful dynasties in the country.
Early Tuesday, in a speech, Marcos thanked his supporters for their “faith in our message of unity” and their “faith in the candidates.”
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the 64-year-old son of the former dictator of the Philippines, won a landslide victory in the country’s May 9th presidential election. (Video: Reuters)
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The mood was jubilant as the scale of their victory became clear and Marcos supporters sang and celebrated in front of campaign headquarters on the same historic boulevard in Manila, where people protested his father’s ouster more than three decades ago.
Hundreds of discouraged supporters of his main opponent, Maria Leonor “Lenny” Robredo, meanwhile flocked to a volunteer center to comfort each other and tune in to her live speech.
“We have started something that has never been seen in the history of our nation: a people-led campaign,” Robredo said Tuesday morning. “It took a long time to build this structure of lies. There will come a time and a chance to overthrow him. “
Her supporters suggest that her mass campaign, which brought together various groups of pink-clad volunteers from various sectors, must maintain momentum and prepare to take on the role of opposition in the new administration.
The dictator’s son Marcos is taking a huge lead in the elections in the Philippines
“One of the lessons we need to learn from the other camp is when they lost [in the 2016 vice-presidential race]they launched a campaign immediately, “said Mick Afable, a volunteer who organized the flash mob and helped take responsibility for Monday’s operations.
He expressed hope that their movement would be long-lasting compared to the well-funded Marcos Juggernaut. “If you pay for loyalty, it disappears very quickly,” he said.
Marcos’ carefully planned trip to the presidency shows how social media can shape perceptions and policies in a highly online country that has been dubbed the “zero patient” of disinformation since Duterte first won with the help of troll farms in 2016.
Like President Marcos will rule an archipelago of about 110 million people devastated by the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, where about a fifth of the population is below the poverty line. He is also expected to continue the war on drugs and protect his outgoing Duterte from possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court.
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“This election is so important because whoever wins will decide who will live and who will die in the Philippines,” said Nicole Curato, a sociologist and professor at the University of Canberra.
But Marcos’ other platforms and policies are largely unclear because he missed election debates and interviews with the independent press instead of surrounding himself with social media personalities and vloggers who enjoy preferential treatment from his campaign.
“We don’t know enough about how they will govern,” Kurato said. “They control the way they spread information.”
Marcos’ managerial experience is concentrated in the province of his family. He was governor of Ilocos Norte in the 1980s (replacing his aunt) before leaving with the uprising that overthrew his father. Upon his return, he served as a provincial representative and then governor again before being elected to the Senate in 2010 – where he was later implicated in a corruption scandal.
Marcos is also expected to continue Duterte’s friendly stance on China, having previously said he would not seek help from the United States over the dispute over islands in the South China Sea, which China is heavily militarizing. However, popular anger is rising against China over its pressure on Filipino fishermen and has long ties to the United States, including between its military.
As Marcos’s numbers kept flowing, thousands in different areas were still waiting to cast their ballots well after midnight. Technical problems plaguing the counting machines have raised fears that ballots could be falsified, and protesters flocked to the Manila Election Commission on Tuesday morning to protest what they saw as an election fraught with irregularities. .
The Karapatan human rights group also called on the public to reject the Marcos-Duterte tandem, saying Marcos “[spits] on graves and suffering ”of thousands of victims of martial law. “What’s worse is that he portrays victims of human rights violations as opportunists looking for money,” said the group’s secretary general, Christina Palabai.
According to the unofficial 98 per cent of the polls, Marcos won 58 per cent of the ballots cast, more than 31 million votes, compared to Duterte’s victory of just 16 million in 2016.
Robredo, a lawyer and social activist, is in second place with 14.7 million votes – less than half of Marcos’ total. The race was a rematch for the two, who competed in the 2016 vice-presidential race, which Robredo won, despite Marcos’ attempts to overturn.
The Philippines is dominated by political dynasties – with the Marcos family among the most famous. Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda, daughter Imee and son have held political positions in or representing the province of Ilocos Norte. Imelda, 92, who had previously run for two unsuccessful presidential candidacy, arrived at the polls Monday in a red dress, rosary and Chanel pin.
“She has wanted to be president since I was 3,” Marcos said of his mother in 2015.
They also face various controversies: unpaid property taxes reportedly raised to more than $ 3 billion, Imelda’s corruption conviction, a nearly $ 2 billion collective action conviction and a contempt order issued by a county court. a U.S. court compensating thousands of victims of rights violations under the Marcos Administration, among others.
Marcos also has his own controversies, from a questionable tax record to his disputed claims that he graduated from Oxford University.
The excesses of the Marcos family were visible during their rule decades ago, with frequent aircraft changes, walks and, as we know, thousands of pairs of Imelda shoes – boxes from which they have since fallen victim to mold and termites.
Under martial law at the time, reports of human rights abuses were widespread, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and killings. But with Marcos’ victory, the family will be protected from responsibility.
Attempts to recover up to $ 10 billion looted by the late family patriarch continue. As president, controlling the executive and influencing government agencies, Marcos will have enormous power in controlling this hunt.
Marcos’ convincing victory shows the success of his social media campaign, but also the “serial frustration” of Filipinos with the political establishment and democratic governance over the past three decades, said Marco Garrido, a sociologist at the University of Chicago.
“The faith they had in liberal democracy dried up, and they developed this taste for illiberal rule during the Duterte administration,” he said. “This nostalgia for the Marcos period will not make sense unless you put it in the context of 36 years of disappointment.
Westfall reported from Washington.
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