The Economist May 7th 2022 49
AsiaPoliticsinthePhilippinesThe name of the father
I
t was justafter lunchtime when a group
of ageing men and women, dressed in
red, and flashing Vforvictory signs, drift
ed past a Uniqlo store in one of the many
malls that pass for public spaces in Manila,
the capital of the Philippines. The call had
gone out on Facebook for supporters of
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos to come out
for their presidential candidate. “I hope he
will vindicate the family name,” says Car
men, 74, as she rides the escalator down to
wards the Zara outlet. “They are so hated.”
On the floor below, another group, this
one mostly in pink, had come to prove her
point. Supporters of Leni Robredo, Mr Mar
cos’s closest rival for the presidency, were
there to show their disdain for Bongbong.
“We want a clean and honest government,”
says Gina Ramos, 52. She has had enough
of corruption, she adds.
She is in for disappointment. Barring
an earthshattering surprise or an unprec
edented polling error, Mr Marcos, the son
of the Philippines’ former dictator of the
same name (minus the bongs), will win by
a landslide in an election on May 9th. Hisvicepresident, who is elected on a sepa
rate ticket, will be Sara Duterte, the daugh
ter of Rodrigo Duterte, the outgoing presi
dent. In a system dominated by dynasties,
both members of the allstar team have for
months polled at above 50% in their re
spective races. Ms Robredo’s numbers have
remained stuck in the low 20s.
That is a remarkable comeback for the
Marcos family, who were run out of the
country on February 25th 1986 as massive
street protests and the loss of support from
the police and army forced Ferdinand se
nior to reconsider his position. The Mar
coses fled to Hawaii—along with at least 24
bars of gold and 22 boxes of cash—where
the deposed dictator died three years later. The family returned to the Philippines,
ostensibly to face corruption charges, in- Marcos’s wife, Imelda, ran for presi
dent the following year, and lost. But Bong
bong won a seat in the House of Represen
tatives. Various members of the family
have played musical chairs in provincial
and national positions ever since (see
chart on next page). In 2016, Bongbong ran
for vicepresident and lost narrowly to Ms
Robredo. Now he is about to move his fam
ily back into Malacañang, as the presiden
tial palace is known.
Yet it is unclear what Mr Marcos intends
to do with power. He has made few prom
ises on the campaign trail, published no
policy agenda and appeared in no debates.
The slogan of his and Ms Duterte’s cam
paign is an airyfairy “Unity”. (The pair call
themselves “Uniteam”.) Despite 30 years in
public life—as congressman, senator and
provincial governor—he has little to show
for it. Descriptions of him by supporters,
critics and foreign observers are variations
on a theme: “easygoing”, “laidback”, “not
very energetic”, “lazy”.
That is because the presidency, for Mr
Marcos and his family, is not a means to
transforming society, fixing deeprooted
problems or even plundering the treasury.
It is instead an end in itself, the culmina
tion of a decadeslong effort to rehabilitate
the family name, long associated with the
late dictator’s brutality and corruption,
and the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by Imelda,
whose shoe collection now fills a museum
M ANILA
Another Ferdinand Marcos is set to become president of the Philippines. He is
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