AnalysisPhilippine election: is Marcos’ win a sign of nostalgia for his father’s strongman rule?

Name: Philippine election: Bongbong Marcos’ supporters celebrate landslide presidential victory
Uploaded: 2022-05-10T09:28:15.000Z
Duration: 32 s
Description: Philippine election: Bongbong Marcos’ supporters celebrate landslide presidential victory

His emphatic victory spotlights the dynastic rule by scions of Asian strongmen such as South Korea’s Park Chung-hee, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Indonesia’s Sukarno

People seem to be attaching more premium to stability and decisiveness amid toxic domestic politics, demands for post-pandemic recovery, and global geopolitics in flux

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Supporters of Bongbong Marcos celebrate his wide lead over other presidential candidates on May 9, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Lucio Blanco Pitlo III

Published: 5:28pm, 10 May 2022Updated: 9:18pm, 10 May 2022

It’s a question worth asking: is Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr’s emphatic victory in Monday’s presidential election a sign that the Philippines is now ready to come to terms with its past?

The 64-year-old’s landslide win has rekindled memories of his father Ferdinand Marcos Snr’s rule from 1965 to 1986. Part of that tenure involved a 14-year martial law period that began in 1972 – a polarising chapter in the country’s history.

Depending on one’s perspective and political allegiance, the late patriarch’s legacy can be said to be both a blessing and a curse. Marcos Snr justified the imposition of martial law as a response to the threats of a growing communist insurgency and secessionism in the Muslim-majority Mindanao and Sulu regions in southern Philippines.

Under his rule, Manila first staked its claim on the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea, and the Philippines carried out several major infrastructure projects, including its first rapid urban transit in Metro Manila which opened in 1985; specialty hospitals in the capital region that were among the first to be built in Asia; and a state-owned steel firm in Mindanao that at one point was the region’s largest producer.

Nonetheless, as is the case with eras of authoritarian rule, Marcos Snr’s martial law was also associated with widespread human rights violation, corruption, huge foreign debt, and an extreme dearth of democratic norms.

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Philippine election: Bongbong Marcos’ supporters celebrate landslide presidential victory

Asian scions

The scale of Marcos Jnr’s victory – a lead of 16 million votes over his closest rival Leni Robredo – suggests many Filipinos may have been mulling this convoluted chapter of their national history. Such introspection has been seen elsewhere in the region, in places that have also put in power the scions of ex-strongmen.