Ferdinand Marcos Junior, son of the former Filipino dictator, claimed victory in the presidential election on Wednesday via his spokesperson, pledging to be the leader of “all Filipinos”.
“To the world, he says: judge me by my deeds, not by my ancestors,” Vic Rodriguez added in a press release.
According to preliminary results covering almost all the polling stations, Marcos Junior, aged 64 and nicknamed “Bongbong”, obtained more than 56% of the votes and more than twice as many votes as his main rival, the outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo, 57.
This crushing victory marks the return to power of the Marcos family, 36 years after the popular revolt which had driven them out.
“I know the counting is not over, it’s not quite official yet but […] I always look at the fact that 31 million of our people voted for unity,” Mr. Marcos said at his headquarters in Manila during his first press conference after the poll, which lasted less than five minutes.
Mr. Marcos, welcomed by jubilant supporters, however refrained from declaring victory pending the final results.
He has promised to “get to work” as soon as he takes office on June 30, with the economy, prices, employment and education as his government’s priorities. He declined to answer reporters’ questions after the conference.
“I’m so happy,” exclaimed Joseph Bugayong, a gardener in his thirties who stood in front of the building. “I saw him in person and even shook his hand. It was worth the wait”.
After the election, one of Mr. Marcos’ first gestures was to visit his father’s grave, “a source of inspiration throughout his life”, his campaign team announced on Wednesday.
Marcos Senior died in exile in 1989 and his embalmed body was interred in 2016 at the National Heroes Cemetery in Manila, with the approval of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Photos posted on the official social media accounts of “Bongbong” show him standing or praying in front of the huge tomb.
Before his transfer to Manila, the remains of the former dictator were kept in a crypt at the family home in the province of Ilocos Norte in the northern Philippines.
Marcos Jr called his father a “political genius” and his two decades in power an era of peace and prosperity for the archipelago.
Disinformation
Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s electoral campaign was marked by a vast and often abject disinformation campaign, ignoring the tens of thousands of opponents arrested, tortured or killed, or even the billions of dollars stolen by the Marcos clan from the coffers of the country for his personal enrichment.
For years, pro-Marcos Junior accounts have invaded social networks, passing off the twenty years of his father’s regime (1965-1986) to young Filipinos as a golden era.
“Bongbong” is the first presidential candidate to win an absolute majority since his father was overthrown in 1986, forcing his family into exile in the United States.
The story of the once-hated family’s return to grace has overshadowed questions about what a Marcos government would be like.
Dodging televised debates and interviews, the candidate left few clues.
He will be accompanied by Sara Duterte, daughter of the outgoing president, elected very comfortably on Monday as vice-president of the country. The two highest mandates of the country will therefore be occupied by two children of former authoritarian heads of state.
Human rights activists, Catholic prelates and political analysts fear that the landslide victory will empower Mr. Marcos Jr to rule the country with an iron fist.
Supporters of Leni Robredo, who saw the poll as a watershed moment for the Philippines’ fragile democracy, were devastated by her landslide defeat.
They had traveled the archipelago for months for the Liberal candidate’s campaign.
Ms. Robredo, 57, admitted to being “clearly disappointed” with the result but promised to continue to fight against bad governance.
Mr. Marcos will have to deal with this opposition which could turn into a powerful pro-democracy movement.
“I think they might still be able to control the worst instincts of the future Marcos and Duterte administration,” said political observer Richard Heydarian.