Personal worship propelled Ferdinand Marcos Junior to victory, researchers say, by embellishing history. We compiled the main reasons for the great support enjoyed by Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte.
In the Philippines of Ferdinand Marcos Junior’s the presidential term is starting to pick up speed. In his first State of the Nation address to Congress this week, Marcos Junior promised support for the poor and hinted strongly at China. The countries have a dispute in the South China Sea.
64-year-old Marcos’ parents are dictators Ferdinand Marcos (president 1965-1986) and Imelda Marcos. Father Marcos was driven into exile as a result of the popular uprising in 1986. He died in Hawaii. Mother Imelda has also been a political influence, although she is often best remembered for her collection of thousands of shoes.
A Filipino researcher living in Jyväskylä Bonn Game has had to explain to Finns why a member of the Marcos family was voted back to power in the Philippines after 36 years
– The result of the May elections was historic. It’s really a lot, especially when it’s a multi-party election, says Juego, who lectures on international politics at the University of Helsinki.
Support came from all circles, both the poor and the rich. According to Juego, Marcos also received a majority of the overseas Filipino vote everywhere except the Vatican. Many who have lived in Finland for a long time also voted for him.
We asked Bonn Juego and another Southeast Asian connoisseur, Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Hornia to assess the reasons for Marcos’ popularity.
It is largely about personal worship
Heikkilä-Horn, who teaches Southeast Asian history at Mahidol University in Thailand, reminds us that Ferdinand Marcos comes from a very influential family in the Philippines.
– He has charisma and the prestige that his family brings with him, support that is difficult for us in the West to understand and accept.
According to Heikkilä-Horn, the election campaign succeeded in presenting that the reign of Marcos the elder and his wife Imelda was a glorious time.
The Marcoses traveled abroad and met world leaders. The campaign reminded how Imelda built cultural centers and great museums, but also health care facilities.
The left who opposed the Marcoses have very different memories of father Marcos’s reign, especially from 1972 and the period after that, when the Philippines had a harsh emergency law. For example, according to Amnesty International, tens of thousands of people were arrested and tortured. More than 3,000 were killed in the 1970s and 80s.
Also this week, thousands of Filipinos demonstrated in Manila during Marcos’ speech.
The law of exception was valid until 1986, when Marcos was exiled to the United States.
In the election campaign, they not only embellished, but also lied
BongBong Marcos’ election campaign sunk into the people. At the same time, voters were fed lies about the past, says researcher Bonn Juego.
The project that beautified the Marcoses’ time and distorted history was launched on social media.
– They literally created a parallel reality, says Juego.
According to Juego, people are happy to buy the story that everything was better before.
Also, the many problems of today’s Philippines gave Marcos Junior the opportunity to say: we have not been in power for more than 30 years, look what the Philippines has become.
In addition, there are many young people in the electorate who are not aware of history or cannot even remember past decades.
The electoral power was the daughter of the previous president, Sara Duterte
Marcos’s vice-presidential candidate was the previous president’s hard-line one Rodrigo Duterte daughter, 44 years old Sara Duterte.
Marcos Junior has run for president before, but he hasn’t come close to winning.
– The support enjoyed by the Duterte family also seems incomprehensible to many Westerners, says Heikkilä-Horn.
Rodrigo Duterte, who was president in the years 2016–2022, is remembered abroad mostly as a tough law enforcement officer. Even when he was mayor of Davao City, he started the war on drugs, which he expanded to the whole country when he was president.
During Duterte’s controversial anti-drug campaign, thousands of drug dealers were shot dead, and bystanders have also been victims. The drug war has been appealed to the International Criminal Court.
However, many Filipinos were satisfied with Duterte’s policies.
– There are many people who appreciate the fact that there are no drug dealers in front of schools handing out drugs to children, says Heikkilä-Horn.
Rodrigo Duterte was supported by 78 percent when he finished his term, according to the polls. He did not run for a new term, as the constitution limits terms to one six-year term.
Father Duterte has urged his daughter to continue, among other things, a tough drug policy.
Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that despite his promises, he has failed to stop the illegal drug trade and corruption, Bonn Juego points out.
The liberal revolution that ousted the Marcoses partially failed in its promises
According to Juego, the victory of Marcos Jr. is also explained by the fact that the so-called people’s revolution of 1986 partially failed to deliver on its promises.
At that time, liberal democratic institutions replaced the dictatorship.
– Freedom of speech was improved and free elections were organized. But these freedoms are enjoyed in a situation where fundamental socio-economic reforms have not been achieved, says Juego.
According to him, Marcos was elected because inequality, insecurity and a tradition of impunity still prevail in the Philippines. The Marcoses received sentences in court, but the sentences were not enforced.
On the other hand, the influence of the Marcoses never ceased, Juego. They maintained solid connections with business life and legal and cultural circles.
– It is easy to turn the power of money into political power, he says.
Imelda was allowed to return from exile only five years after her husband’s deportation. Imelda also ran for president in the 1990s.
Will the younger Marcos also become a dictator?
Ferdinand Marcos Junior has been in power for a month. Based on this, it is difficult to judge his real politics. So far, researchers see no signs that Marcos is aiming for sole power.
One of the main claims of Marcos’ election campaign was that the sins of the father are not passed on to the son. Researcher Bonn Juego urges Filipinos to closely monitor the actions of President Marcos.
– In the end, the most important thing for the Marcoses is to try to clear the family’s reputation. And it has already partially succeeded, says Juego.
After winning the hearts of the people, Marcos, according to Juego, aims to conquer the hearts of the whole world next.
– I also hope that the 31 million votes that Marcos received tells about the expectations for him, not just that people will continue to be blindly loyal to the Marcos family, says University of Helsinki researcher Bonn Juego.