Marcos set for landslide win in Philippine presidential election

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Nikkea Asia

MANILA -- Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, is set to win the country's presidency by a landslide, in a remarkable reversal of fortunes for a political dynasty that 36 years ago was ousted by the "People Power" revolution.

Marcos is on course to secure around 60% of the vote in Monday's election, giving him the strongest mandate for president since his father's rule.

As of 11:24 p.m. and with votes counted from 77.32% of precincts, Marcos has 25.05 million votes, according to multiple local media outlets that cite data from the election commission late on Monday. His closest opponent, Vice President Leni Robredo, was on 11.92 million votes.

Marcos' win concludes a decadeslong effort by his family to reclaim power after the 1986 mass uprising, which abruptly ended his father's 20-year rule and forced the Marcoses into exile in Hawaii until the early 1990s.

Read more: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Philippine-elections/Marcos-set-for-landslide-win-in-Philippine-presidential-election

[speak easy]

1. Is he legalizing weed?

[edhopper]

2. So this will be the last legit election

for a while?

[AZLD4Candidate]

15. Probably. It was literally a race between between doofus v. dinkus. . .lesser of two evils

[keopeli]

3. Wow. The hits just keep on coming. Apparently, parents taught their children nothing at all.

Do they think he'll serve a 6-year term and then just step aside? I've always known Philippinos to be among the nicest, kindest, most generous people I know. Of course, I used to think of Southerners (myself among them) as being hospitable, kind, and giving. To be clear, there are those among these groups who are just as the stereotype suggests. But, I now know that these are a small minority of the population. The strong majority are the exact opposite.

I have to assume that Philippinos (the majority) were happy with the rule of their previous trump-like leader.

At least in the US, I know that the anti-democratic leaders from the GQP are in the minority. Our system is set up to be easily abused by the minority, which is the primary reason we have all the issues we do today. I hope we can transform ourselves into a democracy where minority protection does not mean minority rule.

God bless you, Philippino friends. I hope everything works out for you.

[LiberalLovinLug]

13. Philippinos are in general, very conservative Catholic.

My sister in law, who is Philippino, supported Duterte. Shooting drug dealers, even just users? Yes. There is a general support for a "law and order" President. A disdain for gay rights, liberal drug laws etc.

Its more about the best of the evils (from a liberal perspective).

[Initech]

4. Guess he'll be slightly better than Duterte?

[mpcamb]

19. The Marcos family was really good at theft. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[yaesu]

5. Don't know much about him & either does google from what I have seen but he was a Senator

from 2010 to 2016 ran to reclaim his family name to the throne so to speak.

[Warpy]

6. He's talked a real good fight

Boilerplate anticorruption, anti Duterte, all that good stuff.

I just hope he did manage to reject all the bullshit he got from his parents.

One hopes the people there have taken the adage about politicians and diapers to heart.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. "anti Duterte"? His VP running mate is Duterte's daughter

Marcos' candidacy also received a major boost from its alliance with Davao Mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing but still popular President Rodrigo Duterte.

Sara Duterte topped opinion polls for president last year, but eventually decided to make way for Marcos. This created a formidable alliance that consolidates the two political dynasties' bailiwicks -- the northern Philippines of the Marcoses and southern island of Mindanao of the Dutertes.
...
Marcos has presented himself as the candidate who would continue Duterte's key policies. These include the controversial war on drugs, albeit with a focus on big fish instead of petty peddlers, and the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure drive. Marcos is expected to maintain Duterte's pro-China stance, while recognizing the alliance with U.S. that Duterte tried to undermine.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Philippine-elections/Marcos-set-for-landslide-win-in-Philippine-presidential-election

And he's a waster who has run on "how great things were when Dad was in charge" (when he was vice governor, and then governor, of a province, in his 20s):

Bongbong Marcos: The man attempting to revive a corrupt political dynasty

His opponents say this is because social media has been used to sow disinformation and whitewash history, an allegation the Marcos family deny.

But for years, Facebook has been awash with propaganda posts and anonymous accounts defending the Marcos family legacy.

This manipulation of the past has been so widespread that people parrot misinformation with absolute conviction.

The common theme is that Marcos's tyrannical rule was actually a "golden period" for the country - despite the inconvenient truth that the economy was on the brink, heavily in debt to foreign banks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-61212659

He's even another failed attendee at the Wharton School of Business (having failed to get a degree from Oxford University). Sound familiar?

[Warpy]

16. Familiar? Of course, it's familiar, another rich brat who thinks work is beneath him

becuase of his surname. It's just amazing to me that people there bought so much of his line. They have short memories.

Well, this kid is going to be a refresher course, for sure.

I can always hope it won't be. Hope is cheap.

[KS Toronado]

7. Well I hope the apple fell FAR from the tree!

They don't need another dictator.

[Escurumbele]

8. His parents were corrupt, I hope Jr is not, I hope he does well for his people, or Dutarte will be

back.

People don't seem to understand that dictatorships triumph, in part, because Democracies become corrupt or useless, many times both, people become tired of being hungry, not being able to dream, not able to get out of poverty, otherwise people would not try to find other ways of government, why dictators can manipulate people with rhetoric of nationalism because of course "immigrants are the cause of all their problems", and for some countries, "the United States is the enemy that keeps you poor"...The last one is a great tool for South American dictators, the USA gets blamed for all the country's ills.

[C Moon]

9. I hope he's not like the Bush family.

[not fooled]

10. Well, he lies about his family's past depredations

which does not inspire confidence.

John Oliver did a recent show on this election. Social media is being used to sanitize his past and promulgate lies about his family and him. Sounds like a giant con is about to be pulled on the Phillipines. Wow, does that sound familiar.

[catsudon]

11. well

Just watched a video on how history is being re-written to frame the Marco's as benevolent actors who just had some bad luck and never meant ill will to the people. That a decade+ of martial law was for the good of all.

And people are believing it. Social media has well and truly fucked our world. Good things certainly come from it, but its power to sway people en masse towards what once would have been thought as insane outcomes can't be denied. It's pretty wild stuff.

[AZLD4Candidate]

12. Arroyo, Dutarte, Marcos. . .Filipinos seem to really love their authoritarians

Same with Malaysia and China.

But, from the filipinos I know in PI and the filipino teachers in my district, people there are sick of Dutarte and the VP would have continued Dutarte's policies. The VP had the stink of Dutarte on him, just like Humphrey had LBJ's stink on him with the Vietnam War. Damn you, Surhan Surhan.

[Turbineguy]

17. Marcos only needs to keep $5 Billion of

what is still left from his Father's thievery and the $3.9 billion he owes in taxes. He doesn't actually need to steal any more.

[olddad65]

18. His parents were terrible people.

L