Philippine election: Bongbong Marcos sweeps to landslide victory, in reversal of family’s fortunes

An unofficial tally showed Marcos Jnr with 29.9 million votes, double that of rival Leni Robredo, with 93.8 per cent of the eligible ballots counted
The triumph by the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos shows how the family has benefited from recent efforts to remake their image

The Philippines

Raissa Roblesin ManilaandAgencies

Published: 11:05pm, 9 May 2022

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Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr, the son of the Philippines’ late dictator, clinched a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election on Monday, a stunning result following a day of voting that was marred by technical glitches and reports of violence.

An unofficial tally showed he had surpassed the 27.5 million votes needed for a majority, marking a dramatic about-turn in the fortunes of his family, a political clan that has been synonymous with kleptocracy in Southeast Asia for decades.

“I hope you won’t get tired of trusting us,” Marcos Jnr told supporters in remarks streamed on Facebook, one of the digital platforms at the core of his political strategy. “We have plenty of things to do,” he said, adding “an endeavour as large as this does not involve one person”.

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Philippine election: Bongbong Marcos’ supporters celebrate landslide presidential victory

Marcos Jnr had 29.9 million votes, double that of Leni Robredo, the vice-president, with 93.8 per cent of the eligible ballots counted, according to the unofficial Commission on Elections (Comelac) tally. Turnout was about 80 per cent. An official result is expected around the end of the month.

The senior Marcos was ousted by a “people power” revolution in 1986 following two decades during which he was accused of egregious human rights abuses and the plundering of more than US$10 billion.

Marcos Jnr, however, has benefited from the family’s recent efforts to remake their image, and what some observers have described as an extensive social media disinformation campaign aimed at expunging its notoriety.

Leni Robredo urged her supporters to ‘listen’ to the voice of the people. Photo: Office of the Vice President via AP

Robredo on Tuesday urged supporters to “listen” to the voice of the people. The 57-year-old human rights lawyer and economist said she knew many of her supporters were dismayed and could not accept the numbers coming out of the unofficial account.

“I am also aware that this dismay could be fuelled by reports of irregularities in the elections,” she said, adding that many voters were still waiting to cast their ballot after vote-counting machines malfunctioned in many areas.

“I know we love the country, but this love cannot be the root of discord any more,” she added. “While some votes have not yet been counted and there are still questions in this election that need to be addressed, the voice of the people is getting clearer.”

“For the sake of the Philippines that I know you love very much, we need to listen to this voice because in the end, we only share one nation,” she said.

Some 67 million people, including 1.6 million Filipinos overseas, had registered to vote in the poll. Photo: AP

In the neighbouring province of Lanao del Sur, the towns of Binidayan and Malabang recorded a total of four poll-related deaths. These were among a number of incidents reported on Monday. Violence during Philippine elections is usually related to fierce rivalry among local political clans and their followers.

Some 67 million people, including 1.6 million Filipinos overseas, had registered to vote in Monday’s poll. The vote involves the election of 18,180 national and local-level officials including the president, vice-president, 12 senators and party-list groups.

In the vice-presidential race, Marcos Jnr’s running mate Sara Duterte, the daughter of incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte, also had a solid lead over eight rivals. Robredo’s running mate Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan was Duterte’s next closest rival, the unofficial tally showed.

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Comelec was criticised on social media and from independent monitors on Monday night, following the reports of vote-counting machine malfunctions. The agency was slammed for refusing to extend the voting hours in places that still had queues of voters after polling stations had closed.

Poll watchdog group KontraDaya (Against Cheating) said it “condemned” the electoral fraud in the biggest vote rich region, the Southern Tagalog, which has nine million registered voters.

“During the voting period, the Southern Tagalog region monitored multiple cases of electoral anomalies; VCM errors, failed BEI Procedures, inaccurate voters’ lists, the slow voting process, election violence, vote-buying, and other cases of electoral fraud,” KontraDaya said.

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The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections issued a separate statement of concern, saying it had received numerous reports of its volunteers and the public being barred from entering voting centres to observe the closing of voting, and from taking pictures of election return documents.

The group also said its volunteers were not givens copies of the election returns even though it is accredited by Comelec.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia told local reporters that “the problems reported to the media are isolated cases” and “will not affect the integrity of our elections”. He blamed the glitches on old equipment.

03:11

Philippines presidential election under way with high voter turnout

Monday’s vote has been closely watched, not just due to the Marcos Jnr factor, but also amid rising interest in the future of the Philippines’ strategic alignment amid the escalating US-China rivalry.

Observers had previously said Marcos Jnr would emulate Duterte’s “dovish” stance on China – seen by his critics as a policy of subservience – while his rival Robredo was viewed as favouring a sterner approach with the Asian superpower.

China and the Philippines have in recent years been affected by Beijing’s actions in the disputed South China Sea, with Manila saying Beijing had become more brazen in recent years.

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Duterte, known for his stridently anti-West views, had repeatedly suggested he favoured strengthening ties with Beijing despite the countries’ differences over the sea dispute.

China does not recognise the 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal at The Hague, which rejected Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claims in the waters and awarded the Philippines a landmark victory.

Additional reporting by Reuters, dpa and Agence France-Presse

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