Marcos Jr., pictured on May 7/ © Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
In 1986, the Marcos family left the Philippines, allegedly hauling crates of cash, jewelry, high end valuables estimated at over $10 Billion dollars. By left I mean they fled the country after president turned ruler Ferdinand Marcos Sr. engaged in widespread corruption, assassinated opposition leaders, and committed numerous human rights abuses, including disappearing thousands of people after declaring martial law. In 1983, The Filipino people finally decided they had enough of the Marco’s regime when Marcos Sr. had Benigno Aquino killed. Mr. Aquino was an opposition leader who fled to the United States during the Marcos regime but decided to fly back to the Philippines to run against Marcos Sr. in the presidential election.
Ironically, the Marcos family fled to the United States because they wanted to live in a democracy. In 1989, three years later, Marcos Sr. died in Hawaii. Two years after this, his son Marcos Jr. returned to the Philippines and began the multi decade campaign to whitewash his family’s legacy by going into politics. This wasn’t hard. In 1991, the median age in the Philippines was about 19 years old, so about half the population was not politically aware at the time.
This week, over 31 years after Marcos Jr. returned to the Philippines, he was elected by a landslide as the next president. Marcos Jr. chose the campaign slogan “rise again,” while simultaneously asking the people to judge him by his actions not his family’s past. Marcos Jr. received over 31 million votes and the closest competitor received around 14 million. Sara Duterte, daughter of President Duterte, was chosen by the people to be the vice president.
The current median age in the Philippines is around 26 years old. Marcos Jr. is 64 years old. Most of the population living in the Philippines has no memory of the Marcos regime and has President Duterte as the benchmark for a president. This is the same president who was allegedly involved in crimes against humanity, withdrew the country from the International Criminal Court, and stated he wants to kill just as many drug addicts as Hitler killed jews, and much more.
For the sake of democracy in the Philippines, I hope that Marcos Jr. or Sara Duterte aren’t Kleptocrats, don’t commit crimes against humanity or assassinate political opponents. The world will be watching with bated breath.