PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FERDINAND “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr praised his dictator father’s rule after being sworn in as the country’s new leader today, completing a decades-long effort to restore the clan to the country’s highest office.
Marcos Jr, 64, won last month’s elections by a landslide, securing the biggest victory since his father and namesake was ousted by a popular revolt in 1986.
The younger Marcos succeeds the popular Rodrigo Duterte, who gained international infamy for his deadly war on drugs. Duterte has threatened to kill suspected dealers after he leaves office.
The late dictator was elected president when Marcos Jnr was eight years old, and in an early campaign video, the child says that he would like to become a politician himself someday.
Shortly after his father’s election in 1965 the family played a major role in the Beatles’ decision to stop touring when the band refused an invitation to the presidential palace which was perceived as a snub by the general population.
Marcos Jr was interviewed by local media as saying “I’d like to pounce on the Beatles and cut off their hair!” and the band were subject to death threats and harassment as they tried to fly out of the capital.
Marcos Snr was generally popular for his first presidential campaign, largely due to infrastructure projects financed by foreign loans and a reputation he had cultivated for himself as the “most decorated war hero of the Philippines” for his service in World War Two.
He claimed to have been the recipient of 33 war medals and decorations, but researchers later found that stories about his wartime exploits were mostly propaganda; he received only two awards.
Marcos Snr used a further $50 million to finance more infrastructure projects before his 1969 re-election campaign, which later caused widespread economic issues due to problems repaying the foreign debts.
Dark times
Time and Newsweek would eventually call the election the “dirtiest, most violent and most corrupt” in Philippine modern history, due to the administration’s election tactics of vote-buying, terrorism and ballot snatching.
Marcos Snr became the only president of the Philippines to be elected for a second term but his popularity quickly tumbled due to the inflation caused by his spending, which resulted in social unrest and protests in the early ’70s.
The president used the military to crack down on both left-wing revolutionaries and moderate reformers, before declaring martial law in 1972 after several bombings took place across the country.
Marcos Jnr was attending school in England at the age of 15 when his father declared martial law and went on to study philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford but never graduated. He still claims that he obtained the qualification but the prestigious university confirmed in 2015 that he did not finish the degree. Marcos Jnr took his first step into politics 42 years ago today when he was appointed vice-governor of the province of Ilocos Norte in 1980.
Throughout the 1970s, Marcos Snr dissolved press freedom and other civil liberties, closed down Congress and media establishments, and ordered the arrest of opposition leaders and militant activists.
His regime maintained a strong relationship with the United States, which viewed it as a powerful force for resisting communism in the region.
Corruption
By the mid-eighties, almost half of the population of the Philippines was living in poverty and Marcos Snr’s health was beginning to fail, leading to speculation that his wife Imelda might try to take power from him.
Despite the country’s economic hardship the Marcos family lived in luxury and faced an unsuccessful impeachment attempt for spending American economic aid on his family for personal use.
After major backlash from Marcos Snr’s attempt to rig the election for his fourth presidential term in 1986, opposition supporters overtook parts of Manila, the capital.
He appealed to help from an advisor of US President Ronald Reagan and the Marcos family was flown to Hawaii, bringing an exorbitant amount of wealth with them.
US Customs documents recorded 22 crates of cash valued at $717 million, 300 crates of assorted jewellery, a 3 ft solid gold statue covered in diamonds and deposit slips to banks in the US, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands worth $124 million.
When Malacañang Palace, the family’s residence, was abandoned press reports worldwide took note of the First Lady’s lavish wardrobe, said to include 3,000 pairs of shoes, 15 mink coats, 508 gowns and 888 handbags.
Marcos Jnr who was now governor of Ilocos Norte also fled to Hawaii where his family lived until his father’s death in 1989, with Marcos Jnr being the only family member present at his father’s deathbed. The family, led by their flamboyant matriarch Imelda, returned to the Philippines after his death and began rebuilding political power.
Human rights abuses
During his rule from 1965 to 1986 Amnesty International lists Marcos and his government as being responsible for 398 disappearances, 1,338 killings, dozens of massacres and the imprisonment of 70,000 people and the torture of 34,000.
His family amassed between $11.16 billion to $22.3 billion during this time despite the fact he was paid an annual salary of just $13,500.
In 2011 a Hawaiian court fined Marcos Jr and his mother Imelda $353 million for not respecting an injunction from a 1992 judgement in a human rights case that found Marcos Snr personally liable for multiple cases of torture.
The trial resulted in Marcos Jnr being banned from entering the United States however since his election officials have confirmed that he will now have diplomatic immunity as a head of state and be free to visit.
Marcos Jnr served a second term as a governor in 1998, before becoming deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives and narrowly missing out on becoming vice-president in 2016.
The question of his family’s wealth has continued to follow Marcos Jnr, telling the Associated Press in 1992 that his family’s gold was “from the Japanese and other gold he [his father] found after World War II, and not from the Philippine coffers.”
One conspiracy associated with the family claims that Marcos Snr was paid 400,000 tons of gold for legal services in the late 1940s, gold which was rumoured to have been hidden by a mysterious Tallano family prior to Spanish settlers arriving in the Philippines.
Maintaining the myth
Supporters of Marcos Jnr started an urban legend that he would redistribute the gold amongst everyone in the Philippines if he won the presidential election.
Another urban legend about the family is that Marcos Jnr was stabbed and died during a scuffle while studying abroad and the family allegedly found a look-alike to replace him.
Ironically this mirrors a myth about Beatle Paul McCartney, who Marcos Jnr threatened as a child.
“Bongbong” Marcos’ campaign was bolstered by teaming up with Sara Duterte, the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos Jr and Duterte’s shared history as the offspring of authoritarian leaders has alarmed rights groups and many in the clergy, who fear they will use their victory to entrench themselves in power.
As president, Marcos Jnr is expected to actively court large-scale Chinese investment in order to fund his ambitious infrastructure development initiative. His mother Imelda, who is now 92, said she had dreamed of him becoming the country’s leader.
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