Dictator’s son Marcos wins in election landslide in the Philippines

Manila: Ferdinand Marcos jnr, the son and namesake of the Philippines deposed late dictator, has romped to victory in the country’s presidential election.

Unofficial figures from the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on Tuesday showed “Bongbong” Marcos with an overwhelming advantage over nearest challenger Leni Robredo, the outgoing vice-president.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos jnr speaks to his mother Imelda after casting his vote at the Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary school in Batac, Ilocos Norte.Credit: Getty Images

With more than 95 per cent of ballot results transmitted from polling stations around the nation, the 64-year-old former senator, congressman and governor had received 30.7 million votes, more than double Robredo, who trailed on 14.6 million. Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao was a distant third on 3.6 million.

Marcos’ provisional return easily surpassed the 27.5 million votes needed for an historic majority and had already far exceeded the 16.6 million votes achieved by Rodrigo Duterte when the shoot-from-the-hip strongman was triumphant in the Philippines’ previous presidential election in 2016.

Duterte’s daughter Sara has been instrumental in helping drive Marcos streets ahead of his rivals after joining forces with him to run as vice-president rather than vying for the top job herself.

She enjoyed an even bigger lead in the separate vice-presidential race based on preliminary figures, with 31.2 million compared to 9.2 million polled by Robredo’s running mate Francis “Kiko” Pangilnan.

The Philippines’ new president and vice-president may not be declared for another fortnight when Congress resumes and won’t be sworn in until June 30. But the gulf between Marcos and the rest of the field on the unofficial tally indicates that is now all but a formality.

There have been ongoing attempts to have him disqualified based on a conviction in 1997 for failing to file tax returns. But should these challenges continue to fail, Marcos is headed for an astonishing return to the Malacanang, the presidential palace occupied by his parents Ferdinand Marcos snr and Imelda for 21 years until the former’s ousting in a people’s uprising in 1986.

As Marcos and Sara Duterte devotees began to celebrate outside their campaign headquarters in Manila on Monday night, Marcos said he was waiting for the final count but thanked supporters.

“If I win, I expect that your help and trust will not fade. We have a lot of things to do for our future,” he said.

Marcos lost narrowly to Leni Robredo in the vice-presidential race in 2016.Credit: Getty Images

On Tuesday, about 400 activists and students were met by police as they protested outside the election commission office about what they claimed were irregularities with counting.

Election day in the Philippines had earlier been affected by malfunctioning vote-counting machines in some precincts as tens of millions of voters took to polling stations at schools, braving scorching heat and hours-long queues to vote in what was cast as the most consequential leadership contest in the south-east Asian archipelago for decades.

Marcos himself voted at the Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School, named after his grandfather, in his hometown of Batac in Ilocos Norte province.

Among his supporters were Cherie DeAsis, an online casino dealer, and her mother Maria Leonara, a housewife, who cast their votes in the Tondo district of Manila, an area that featured heavily in the deadly war on drugs undertaken by Duterte, whose constitutionally limited single six-year presidential term ends next month.

They live with another family in a 42-square metre tenement in a poor area of the capital that was built when Marcos snr ran the country under martial law.

Sara Duterte had been the presidential frontrunner before deciding to vie for the vice-presidency instead.Credit: Bloomberg

His brutal dictatorship was marred by rights abuses such as torture, killings and forced disappearances as well as plundering of as much as $US10 billion ($14 billion) in state funds.

Critics have denounced disinformation networks on social media they say have gloried his legacy. Yet as successful as they might have been, the results also reflect a wider disillusionment with the efforts of post-Marcos governments associated with elites.

Maria Leonara, the housewife, said she remembers martial law as a time in Philippines history when the poor was looked after and “everything was more disciplined”.

“Life was better at the time,” she said. “After 36 years [since Marcos snr ruled] nothing has happened.”

People wait in line to vote at a school used as a polling station in Tondo district of Manila.Credit: AP

In a nation where 23 per cent of people are categorised as poor, her daughter Cherie hopes Marcos jnr governs like his father: “He’s a visionary man,” she said. “Normally, people like me inherit part of the character of our mum. So, we believe Bongbong Marcos inherits a part of his parents.”

In more affluent Makati in central Manila, Helen Austria, a building administrator in Makati, said she was supporting Marcos because he was on the same ticket as Sara Duterte.

The early count indicates Marcos will avenge his loss to Robredo in the 2016 vice-presidential election, a narrow defeat by just 200,000 votes that he sought unsuccessfully to overturn.

The two have a bitter rivalry and embody a political chasm that has existed more than four decades, with Robredo allied with the movement that toppled the elder Marcos.

Election officials destroy unused ballots on Monday.Credit: Getty Images

About 65 million Filipinos were eligible to cast ballots on Monday to decide on the successor to Duterte, plus thousands of other posts, from lawmakers and governors to city mayors and councillors.

COMELEC declared the election to have been “relatively peaceful” and documented 15 security incidents, including what police said was the killing of three members of a peacekeeping force near a polling station in the south.

with Reuters

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