50 Asia TheEconomistMay7th 2022
in Manila. Thousands of people were killed
and tens of thousands jailed or tortured
during the period of martial law imposed
by Marcos senior. Some $5bn10bn of pub
lic money is alleged to have been looted.
“This campaign did not start six years ago”,
when Mr Marcos lost his bid for the vice
presidency, says Julio Teehankee of De La
Salle University in Manila, but in 1986.
Over time, and more recently helped
along by skilful propaganda, the idea took
hold that the Marcos dictatorship was a
“golden era”, when the Philippines enjoyed
stability, high growth and massive invest
ment in infrastructure. On social media
and on YouTube, sophisticated campaigns
push this revisionist version of history.
The lack of an agenda beyond winning
is bad for the Philippines. Its population of
some 110m is the secondbiggest in South
East Asia. Around a quarter of its people
cannot afford enough food and other es
sentials. Its economy, before the pandemic
among the bestperforming in the region,
was battered by an unduly long and harsh
lockdown. It is an American treaty ally
with a niggling territorial dispute with
China, lying within cellphonesignal dis
tance of Taiwan. It will be on the front line
in any conflict between those powers.
Mr Marcos has little to say on any of
these subjects. What he has said has
alarmed economists. For example, he
promises to cap the price of rice at about
half the current rate. That may be cam
paign bluster, however. Analysts expect
him to forget unaffordable campaign vows
and follow Mr Duterte’s example in ap
pointing technocrats to run the economy.
On foreign policy, Mr Marcos’s family
has a long association with China. One of
only two Chinese consulates outside the
capital is in Ilocos Norte, a province nota
ble only for being the family’s stronghold.
He is said to be China’s preferred candi
date. Yet Bongbong is a cosmopolitan sort
with a fondness for England, where he
studied, and for American culture. There
are suggestions that he might appoint Jose
Manuel Romualdez, the Philippine ambas
sador to America (and his second cousin),
as foreign secretary. But his lack of any
strong beliefs of his own, combined with a
susceptibility to external influence, is a po
tential liability. He listens to the last per
son he spoke to, says an interlocutor.
The greater risks are at home. Mr Mar
cos’s campaign may have been milquetoast
but his candidacy, and probable victory,
have been deeply divisive. Ms Robredo has
fired up a passionate base. Her rallies draw
huge crowds. Lots of Filipinos remain wed
ded to the ideals of the 1986 revolution that
kicked out his father. It is possible they will
not accept the result. Attempts to disquali
fy Mr Marcos are making their way through
the elections commission, and will proba
bly get sent to the Supreme Court. Whatev
er it decides, there will be uproar.
Mr Marcos’s administration is likely to
be marked by protests and instability. That
will be bad for governance, and for the
economy. It will also be a headache for
America—and an opportunity for China—
as they compete in the Pacific. The Marcos
name is rising again. But for how long?n
Running in the family
Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos’s family
members in office, by election year
Source: Ron Mendoza et al.,
Ateneo School of Government *Ilocos Norte province
Senator
Governor*
Congressperson*
199295 98 2001 04 07 10 13 16 19 22
Imelda
(wife)
Matthew
Manotoc
(grandson)
Keon
(nephew)
Imee
(daughter)
Bongbong
(son)
Bongbong
Bongbong Imee
Bongbong Imee
W
henbritishcolonistsfirstcame
to Australia they brought with
them, among other delights, a bouquet of
venereal diseases. They introduced
Aboriginals to syphilis and gonorrhoea.
Not even Australia’s wildlife was spared.
The Europeans shipped in sheep and
cattle infected with chlamydia. Scientists
suspect that it jumped between species:
koalas are now riddled with the disease.
In some colonies, every animal tests
positive. Only a couple of wild pop
ulations are free of it.
This is more than just a matter of
embarrassment in polite marsupial
society. Chlamydia causes conjunctivitis,
which can blind a koala. Worse is a
brown bottom. That implies that the
disease has led to a bad urinary infection
and incontinence. Those animals are
hard to save, says Michael Pyne, a vet at
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Queens
land. Often the infection spreads to the
kidneys, leading to renal failure. Many
survivorsareleftinfertile.
Australia’s iconic “bear” has plenty of
other problems, too. Koala numbers in
Queensland and New South Wales have
fallen by at least half this century. The
decline is so steep the federal govern
ment recently listed them as endan
gered. Their habitats have been ripped up
for development and burnt down in
bushfires. They are regularly hit by cars
and attacked by dogs. Yet chlamydia is
one of their biggest killers, and growing.
It is not just that randy koalas are
spreading disease the oldfashioned way.
Females feed their joeys a kind of faeces
called “pap” to pass on nutrients from
eucalyptus leaves. That transmits the
infection, too. Koalas do not respond
well to antibiotics, which disrupt the
bacteria they need to break down food.
Help may be coming in the form of
vaccines. Competing teams at two
Queensland universities have spent
years developing jabs for koala chlamy
dia. Both are now testing them in wild
populations. A singleshot vaccine,
created by the University of the Sunshine
Coast, is being administered to some
1,000 animals in Queensland and New
South Wales. Early results suggested that
it is about 70% effective at preventing the
disease, says Samuel Phillips, one of the
researchers. Hundreds more koalas are
being given a doubleshot vaccine by the
Queensland University of Technology
and Currumbin Wildlife Hospital.
Mass vaccination is still a long way
off. Inoculating every wild koala would
in any case be impossible. The creatures
would first have to be found (they are not
exactly conspicuous) before being
coaxed out of trees. Yet chlamydia does
not spread as virulently as, for example,
covid19. Vaccinating just 10% of a breed
ing population annually might be
enough to stem infections.
Diseasedmarsupials
A koalossal problem
S YDNEY
Australian scientists are jabbing koalas against chlamydia
Hard to bear