PHILIPPINES
Another President Marcos – how? DOROTHY GUERRERO on the shocking election victory of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s son in the Philippines. the Philippines has around 7,100 islands, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, popularly known running a national election campaign as Bongbong, will be sworn in as the Philippines’ 17th president on 30 June 2022. requires huge funds. The Marcos-Duterte ticket was a powerful combination, which How did the son and namesake of a man brought together political clans from known worldwide as a brutal dictator and both the north and southern part of the one of the world’s worst kleptocrats, who drove his country to economic bankruptcy, Philippines. The Marcos family is one of the most successful, going back over a century manage to win an electoral landslide 36 to Marcos Jr’s great grandfather in the years after his father was ousted? northern province of Ilocos. Philippine democracy is in tatters after After Ferdinand Marcos Sr was ousted six years of Rodrigo Duterte’s government, following the mass notorious for brazen popular struggle of killings under its ‘war What has been 1986, his family exile on drugs’, muzzling proved to be shortthe media and lost, and with lived. New president disregarding the rule terrible effect, is the Corazon Aquino of law. With Duterte’s allowed the family’s daughter Sara elected collective social return to face various to the vice-presidency, court charges in 1991, it seems that the memory. after Marcos’s death in Philippines’ future is 1989. This was actually getting more and a precondition by the Swiss government in more similar to its dark past. exchange for cooperation with efforts to PATRONAGE POLITICS recover the Marcoses’ wealth. Since their The wide margin won by the Marcosreturn, the Marcos family have taken turns Duterte tandem proved that Philippine occupying various elected posts. elections are still dominated by the wellVOTE-BUYING AND OTHER entrenched machineries of political ELECTION PLAGUES dynasties which rely on patronage politics. These politically influential families Running against well-entrenched monopolise public offices from generation gatekeepers and well-oiled machinery is to generation, treating it almost as their an uphill battle. It is an ‘open secret’ that birthright. Local politicians depend on vote-buying is part of the electoral culture, them for largesse, which they in turn use and there were allegations of vote-buying to distribute favours to local residents. On in many areas in the presidential election, election days these translate into votes. which reportedly even boosted the local Political dynasties are power economy. gatekeepers. They have very close Closest rival candidate Leni Robredo, relationships with business tycoons who a human rights lawyer and current vicesupport their electoral campaigns. Given president (elected independently in 2016
14 Ninety-Nine 2022
Right: A protest in Quezon City in February to mark the 36th anniversary of the People Power revolution, which toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
