Ferdinand ‘Bong Bong’ Marcos Jnr puts family back in power in Philippines

Ferdinand ‘Bong Bong’ Marcos appears to have won a landslide victory in The Philippines’ presidential election.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at party heaquarters in Manila on Monday night. Picture: AFP

The Philippines has delivered a landslide election victory to Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jnr in a back-to-the-future result that catapults the 64-year-old into the presidency 36 years after his dictator father was ousted from power.

The former senator looks set to be sworn in next month after exit-polls based on electoral commission figures showed he had captured 30.8 million votes – twice that of closest rival Leni Robredo on 14.7 million – after 97.5 per cent of the vote had been counted.

His running mate, Sara ­Duterte-Carpio, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, looked to have clinched an even more decisive win in a separate vice-presidential poll with 21 million more votes than her closest rival.

The preliminary results of Monday’s election mark an astonishing turnaround for the Marcos family who were driven into exile in 1986 by a people’s power revolution after years of dictatorship, rampant corruption and human rights abuses under his father, ­Ferdinand Snr. The family has spent years trying to whitewash its notoriety. Mr Marcos Jnr on Tuesday addressed those issues, saying: “Judge me not by my ­ancestors, but by my ­actions.”

People protesting against the poll result at a rally in front of the electoral commission in Manila on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

If confirmed, the Marcos victory will have delivered the biggest margin in a Philippines presidential race since Corazon Aquino was elected to succeed his late father.

A record 88 per cent of 67.5 million eligible voters turned out on Monday, many of them drawn to Marcos Jnr’s simple message of unity and better times after a punishing two years in which the pandemic has decimated the lives and livelihoods of millions of Filipinos.

Mr Marcos issued a cautious victory speech on Monday night, pending an official electoral commission result, thanking his supporters and warning them to be vigilant. “Although the count is not over yet, we still need to keep watch,” he said in a brief television appearance.

Ms Robredo, the outgoing Vice-President who campaigned on a promise of clean government in a country plagued by systemic corruption, also thanked her supporters early on Tuesday, acknowledging their “real dismay” but urging them not to lose hope.

“Our campaign will only be considered a failure if we let our formed bond melt away,” she said.

“We did not fail. Most importantly, we are not yet done. We are just starting.”

Ms Robredo also referred to “irregularities” in Monday’s polls in which voters across the country were forced to queue for hours ­because of breakdowns in at least 2000 vote-counting machines, leaving some still waiting to vote hours after polls closed.

Vice-President Leni Robredo urged supporters not to lose hope. Pictures: AFP

The official COMELEC vote was expected to confirm Marcos junior’s overwhelming election victory by Wednesday, while on Tuesday the commission rejected appeals to have his candidacy disqualified because of a prior tax evasion conviction.

Outside COMELEC headquarters in Manila’s historic Intramuros district on Tuesday morning, riot police and SWAT teams faced down protestors, many of whom were struggling to accept the Marcos victory, notwithstanding polls consistently predicting that outcome.

Father Robert Reyes, a Catholic priest and head of the group Clergy for the Moral Choice, told The Australian Filipinos “should not just resign themselves to the result of the election”.

“We ask someone inside this building to do the heroic act of revealing what’s going on inside which has led to this quick and highly suspicious result,” he said.

“This may be the end of our democracy if people just sit down and resign themselves to another Marcos regime.”

Critics fear a Marcos-Duterte leadership will entrench dynastic politics and eviscerate all political opposition and a free media.

A Catholic priest tries to speak to police at a rally in front of the electoral commission in Manila. Picture: AFP

There are also legitimate questions over how a Marcos presidency will deal with the legacy and history of the 1986 revolution, on which the country’s modern democracy and its 1987 constitution are founded.

But a Marcos presidency could also spell a more able administration, and a return to a more traditional foreign policy direction than under his mercurial predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, said political analyst Richard Heydarian.

“Bong Bong has a better command of economics than Duterte and is not scared of having smart technocratic people around him so I won’t be surprised if his cabinet has a number of stalwarts and reassuring individuals,” he said.

“On China, he has indicated he favours dialogue but Marcos is not infatuated with China in the way Duterte is. He’s a force on his own and a product of Westernised education and culture.

“What’s most likely under Marcos is, yes, there’ll be friendliness towards China.

“But if public pressure is there, if the defence establishment puts pressure on him to take a tough stance, and if the Biden administration engage him directly – along with other western powers including Australia – then I think we could have a much more balanced and less slavish rhetoric.”

Additional reporting: Jeoffrey Maitem