A thorough analysis rules him out. They attended at philippines elections this Monday a world legend of the boxinga lawyer for human rights, a former director of the National Police and the son of a dictator. The last one will be proclaimed the winner with a legacy that would ruin the political career in any other country and will return to the Palace of Malacañán the clan associated with the darkest years of the recent history of the country. Ferdinand Marcos Junior, better known as bongbongswept at the close of this edition with 59% of the votes, compared to 28% for Leni Robredo and 6% for Manny Pacquiao, already completing 83% of the unofficial automatic provisional count published by the electoral commission.
His possible victory comes on the 50th anniversary of the martial law his namesake father signed. Marcos and his wife, Imeldaled a brutal kleptocracy that ended with the popular revolt of 1986. He died three years later in peaceful exile in Hawaii and the rest returned in 1991 without apologizing or returning what was stolen. Imelda, the epitome of the spendthrift consort, was received like a celebrity and from the province of Ilocos Norte, the family fiefdom, recomposed the old network of power. The Marcos have integrated the national political landscape in the last three decades and bongbong he will reach the presidential goal at age 64 if the result of the partial recount is confirmed.
The exploits are not piled up in his biography. He left the British University of Oxford and the American University Pennsylvania without titles and, once back, he acted as governor, congressman and senator No notable achievements. He is often described as carefree or lacking in spirit, lacking the foresight and courage required by the problems of a country with a quarter of its population living below the poverty line. the current president, Rodrigo Duterte, dismissed him as “spoiled” and “weak” before the royal politics bring the two clans closer together.
Campaign with weaknesses
He lost the vice-presidential elections four years ago to Leni Robredo, the human rights activist who discusses his victory from a distance. Significantly, the biggest cheers at the few rallies allowed by the coronavirus followed mentions of her mother. Her campaign has been designed assuming their weaknesses. He fled the debates with other candidates and arid interviews, relying on the disinformation that whitewashes his father’s government on social networks. “There are many positive things of those times”, he had answered her in that unsuccessful campaign. And he has allied himself with Sara Duterte-Carpiodaughter of the still president Rodrigo, to get the votes from the south of the country that her family neglected.
Appeals to Filipino unity and other steamy concepts have dominated his speech. There are no details of his foreign policy, which will have to pivot between old military alliance with USA and the new dependency of China for its infrastructures, nor how it will reduce bleeding social inequalities. He has promised to improve public health and education and combat climate change. Economists are unsettled by his apology for paternal populist policies like rice credits that helped farmers and buried rural banks in debt. The best scenario, experts agree, is that he leaves the arid economy to technocrats.
The victims of the dictatorship fear that, if the provisional count is validated, the mandate of bongbong extinguish the slim hopes of persecute outrages and larceny from his parents. He will appoint the president of the Human Rights Commission and has already questioned that they were violated. It will also elect the members of the Presidential Good Governance Commission that investigates the family fortune. The country has barely recovered 2,240 million dollars of the 5,000 or 10,000 million that the marriage depleted from the public coffers. He will also appoint the Ombudsman, who deals with complaints of government corruption, and the head of the tax office. It is not a minor matter because the accusation of tax fraud worth almost 4,000 million dollars weighs on the dynasty.
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The penalty feefor which the heirs are responsible, justified the fact that the opposition requested the annulment of the candidacy of bongbong. The electoral commission rejected the petition and the appeal will be heard in the Supreme Court. Nor will the new president accept the investigations of the thousands of drug war deaths of his predecessor. The members of the International Criminal Court will be able to go to the Philippines “as tourists”, Marcos has clarified.
The most likely victory of bongbong it certifies the Philippines’ penchant for unorthodox leaders and ends Imelda’s vital mission of rehabilitating her husband.