On May 9, the Philippines ushered in national and local elections. Preliminary statistics show that, as widely predicted, the "Presidential II" combination won the victory – Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was elected president with little suspense, and Sarah Duterte was elected vice president, both of whom received more than 55% of the vote. The two are the son of the late former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and the daughter of the current Philippine President Duterte. From the son of the president who fled with his father abroad to the overwhelming election of the president, what kind of person was Marcos Jr.?
Marcos Jr. (left) and Sarah
The political family is his "black spot"The Philippine general election is very lively, there are as many as 10 candidates participating in the presidential election alone, including marcos, the son of the former president, the current vice president Robredo, the "boxer" and senator Pacquiao, the mayor of the capital Manila Domagoso... However, at the end of April this year, Masco Jr. outperformed other candidates by a large margin in the polls, almost locking in the victory in advance, when his approval rating was around 56%, more than 30 percentage points ahead of Robredo in second place. In the 2016 election, Marcos Jr. narrowly lost to Robredo when running for vice president.
Masco Jr.'s popularity did not come from his political family, but from his social media activity. Instead, his father and family became the ammunition for campaign rival Robredo to attack him. Marcos Jr.'s father, Ferdinand Marcos, was elected president of the Philippines in 1965, and his high-pressure administration during his presidency was met with mixed praise in the Philippines. Little Marcos's mother, Imelda, was a singer when she was young, ran for "Miss Manila", was elected to the House of Representatives, and was known as the "iron butterfly" in the Philippine political arena, and was criticized by the outside world for her extravagance.
Ferdinand Marcos and Mrs. Imelda
Marcos Jr. is 65 years old and nicknamed "Bang Bang" — his video vlog is called "Bang Bang Marcos". At the time of his birth, Marcos the Elder was a member of the Philippine Congress and later elected to the Senate. The elder Marcos went to college and got excellent grades, but his real fame was in the military. He joined the U.S.-Philippine Coalition in 1941, served as the military commander of the Second Division of the Philippine Army, was a well-known "anti-Japanese hero" in the Philippines, and was appointed by the American general MacArthur as the administrator of the eight provinces of Northern Luzon in 1945 and promoted to colonel.
After the end of World War II, the Philippines became independent, and the elder Marcos became the secretary of President Manuel Rojas and was later elected to parliament. He was elected President of the Philippines in December 1965 and re-elected in 1969, serving as Prime Minister in 1978. In 1981, he was elected president for the third time.
Marcos Sr. has been in charge of the Philippines for more than 20 years, and he has had a great influence on the country and is also controversial. During his tenure, the Philippines developed significantly in all aspects and entered a "golden age", but he was also criticized for suppressing dissidents, martial law, corruption and bribery. Eventually, in 1986, he sparked mass protests over electoral fraud, and the Marcos family, including Marcos Jr., went into exile in Hawaii.
Ferdinand Marcos
It is said that after the family went into exile in Hawaii, people broke into the Malakanan Palace, the Philippine presidential palace, and found that the basement was filled with 2,500 tops, 3,500 pairs of pants, 2,700 pairs of shoes and other clothing and hats of Imelda. To this day, there is also a museum in the northern Philippine city of Marikina that displays 800 pairs of Imelda's shoes.
When The Elder Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, only Marcos Jr. was with him. Even after his death, the body of the elder Marcos was not allowed to be transported back to the Philippines for burial. It wasn't until the Philippine Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the body of the elder Marcos was buried in his homeland.
From "Spoiled Child" to "Revenge of the Prince"Born into such a political family, Little Marcos was destined to enter politics. He spent the first half of his life under the protection of his father, and from an early age he moved with his parents to the presidential palace, receiving excellent care in all aspects. Recalling his childhood, Marcos Jr. once said in an interview with the Philippine media, "I am a spoiled child", he said that when he was a child, he could feel the gap between friends and himself, friends lived in "home", and he lived in "palace".
Little Marcos as a child with his father
In 1970, at the age of 13, Marcos Jr. was sent to england to study, first at The Voss School in England. Built in the early 17th century, the school is a well-known private and boarding school in the UK, with tuition fees of up to £36,000 a year. Marcos later entered Oxford University to study politics, economics and philosophy, but he was not a good student. It is said that he only passed the philosophy discipline, did not pass the economics, and did not pass the political science examination twice, and finally failed to get a degree. There are also rumors that his life as a student was as extravagant as his parents', with pocket money of up to $10,000 a month.
Marcos Jr. was in Oxford, England in 1975
In 1980, the elder Marcos was still in power in the Philippines, and the 23-year-old Marcos Jr. began serving as vice governor of the Philippine province of Ilocos Norte, becoming governor in 1983. The province of Ilocos do Norte is the home of the Marcos family and their traditional political stronghold. But with the Exile of the Marcos family in Hawaii in 1986, The Political Journey of The Little Marcos was interrupted.
After the death of Marcos Sr., members of his family were allowed to return to the Philippines. Marcos, who has experienced the ups and downs of his life, returned to Philippine politics in 1991 and staged a "Revenge of the Prince".
He also started his career as a representative of Ilocos Dole Dole, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 and was elected to the Presidency of the province in 1998. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 2007 and to the Senate in 2010 until 2016. In the Philippines, which has a population of more than 100 million, senators are elected by universal suffrage, while the Philippine Senate has only 24 seats in total, so the political weight of senators is very heavy. However, in the 2016 Philippine national and local elections, Marcos Jr. ran for vice president, but narrowly lost to his opponent, the current vice president Robredo.
Marcos Jr.'s wife, Luis, is a scholar from the Araneta family, a prominent Filipino family who has taught at several Philippine colleges and universities. The Araneta family has a multinational corporation and a wealth of talented people who have produced politicians, wealthy businessmen and well-known religious figures. They have three sons, the Philippine Times reported that the eldest son Sandro graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is now in politics, participating in this year's North Ilocos Provincial Council elections; the second son graduated from Oxford Brookes University, majoring in business administration, and currently works for a multinational company; the younger son William, a software engineer who lives in Singapore for a long time.
The Little Marcos couple
"Internet celebrity" presidential candidateWhy was Marcos Jr. able to ride the pack in this Philippine election and win with a simple majority? This is inseparable from his political strategy of "avoiding the heavy and taking the light", cleverly amplifying the advantages and reducing the disadvantages.
On the one hand, there are still many supporters of the old Marcos in the Philippines, who miss that "golden age". Marcos, on the other hand, has always played down the scandals of his father's reign and opposed allegations of corruption. At the same time, efforts are made to highlight his father's contributions to the Philippines and reinforce the impression that his administration was a "golden age" in Philippine history.
On the other hand, Marcos Jr. used social media as the main position of the campaign, making himself an "internet celebrity". He has more than 2 million followers on overseas video platforms and more than 6 million followers on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Since announcing his presidential bid in October 2021, he has interacted with millions of fans on social media with the campaign team, not only using vlogs to post political platforms and canvassing videos, but also often sharing Marcos's personal life, such as playing guitar, playing mobile games, family dinners, accepting netizen challenges, answering weird questions, etc. Marcos Jr. also jokes with Sarah about his love of burgers and mango milkshakes, which are popular with young people. Many netizens feel that they are particularly "modern", "innovative" and close to the people.
The Philippines is a social media powerhouse, with Filipinos ranking first in the world for the amount of time they spend social media, with 80% of the country's 110 million people having social media accounts. A large portion of this overlaps with voter groups, with 65.7 million registered voters in the Philippines and 1.69 million overseas voters, more than half of whom are between the ages of 18 and 41, according to the Philippine Electoral Commission. Many of these young people know very little about the history of the old Marcos period, and some commentators have commented, "The people who support The Young Marcos now were not born when the old Marcos was in power." ”
In addition, as Sarah's partner, Marcos Jr. also received the "endorsement" of the current President of the Philippines, Duterte. The Philippine presidential palace has released photos of Duterte and Marcos Jr. exchanging "governing experiences", and Duterte's ruling party, the Democratic People's Power, has also passed a resolution supporting the combination of Marcos Jr. and Sarah.
However, Marcos Jr., who is good at social media operations, does not elaborate much on the policy propositions. Marcos Jr. has rarely given media interviews since the campaign began, and he was the only one of 10 presidential candidates to miss two televised debates held by the Election Commission. During the campaign, he and Sarah came up with the slogan of "national unity", portraying themselves as "people who bridge divisions". Now, after the two political families of Marcos and Duterte join forces, how the two "second generation presidents" will take charge of Philippine politics for the next 6 years is worth paying attention to.