On May 25, 2022, the Philippine Congress officially declared Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.) as the new president and Sara Duterte-Carpio (daughter of the still incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte) as vice president. The results of the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) confirm the election predictions: Marcos Jr. received 58.8 percent and Duterte-Carpio 61.3 percent of the total votes. The inauguration of the 17th Philippine President “Bongbong” Marcos is set for June 30, 2022; Duterte-Carpio will take her oath as Vice President on June 19, 2022.
Following Marcos Jr.’s visit to his father’s grave two days after election day, he said in a first statement, ‘judge me not by my ancestors, but by my actions’. However, for Sebastian Strangio from the news magazin “The Diplomat”, Marcos Jr.’s election marks ‘the final triumph of the Marcos clan 36 years after the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, the [father] of the president-elect, was driven from power amid a popular uprising that forced the family into exile in Hawaii’. After his death, the family returned not only to the Philippines itself but also into politics. Since then the Marcos family has been engaged in systematic “whitewashing” of historical facts in order to re-establish their political dynasty. In their disinformation campaigns, the autocratic rule under Marcos Sr. was portrayed as a “golden age” – yet denying the numerous human rights violations as well as the probably greatest plunder of state coffers. Speaking about the many fears and concerns on a new Marcos government, political scientist Maria Ela Atienza adds, ‘what we are also curious to know is how he will actually govern, that’s still a very grey area. We don’t really know much about ‘Bong Bong’ Marcos as his own person’.
It’s nothing new that the Philippines is politically and economically controlled mostly by dynasties which again became evident in this year’s presidential election. The Marcos family continues to be represented in the Congress as well as in regional politics in Ilocos Norte and Tacloban City. After Sara Duterte-Carpio replaced her father in the office of mayor in 2016, her brother Sebastian Duterte will take over now. Paolo Duterte, Duterte’s second son, was also re-elected as a congressman. Moreover, the winning candidates in the Congress and local government units belong again to wealthy and influential political elites. Half of the 12 newly elected senators are part of the Marcos-Duterte alliance. The only opposition politician (one of two women) in the Senate is Risa Hontiveros.
Read here the AMP statement on the 2022 presidential election.