MANILA, Philippines – Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the eponymous son of a ousted dictator, praised his father’s legacy and overlooked his violent past when he swore in Philippine president Thursday after a stunning election victory that opponents they say it was achieved by bleaching his father. family image.
His rise to power, 36 years after an army-backed “popular power” revolt ousted his father from office and in global infamy, turned politics upside down in Asian democracy, where on a public holiday, monuments and the Philippine Constitution are reminders of the end. of the tyrannical government of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
But in his inaugural speech, Marcos Jr. he defended the legacy of his late father, who said he achieved many things that had not been done since the country’s independence.
A supporter holds a portrait of new Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. while swearing in as the new leader of the country. AFP via Getty Images
“He did it, sometimes with the necessary support, sometimes without. He will also be with his son,” he said amid applause from his fans in the crowd. “You will have no excuses from me.”
“My dad built more and better roads, he produced more rice than all the administrations before his,” Marcos Jr. said. He praised the infrastructure projects of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who ended his six-year term also with a legacy of violence, strong man government and contempt for those who stood in his way.
The new president called for unity, saying that “we will go further together than against each other. He did not touch on the atrocities of human rights and the looting of which his father was accused, saying that he would not speak of the past but of the future.
Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr. greets during the swearing-in ceremony at the former legislative building in Manila, Philippines, on June 30, 2022. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Activists and survivors of the martial law era under his father protested the inauguration of Marcos Jr., which took place at a noon ceremony on the steps of the National Museum in Manila. Thousands of police officers, including riot police, SWAT commandos and snipers, were deployed in the Bay’s tourist district for security.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan and US Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff were among foreign dignitaries who attended the event, which featured a 21-gun salute, a military parade and overflights of air force aircraft.
“Wow is this really happening?” asked Bonifacio Ilagan, a 70-year-old activist who was arrested and severely tortured by counterinsurgency forces during the government of former Marcos. “For martial law victims like me, this is a nightmare.”
Parading through the streets, protesters displayed banners saying “Never again to martial law” and “Reject Marcos-Duterte.”
Protesters protest during a demonstration against Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Miranda square. SOUP Images / LightRocket via Gett
This historical background and antagonism haunt Marcos Jr. during a six-year presidency that begins at a time of intense crisis.
The Philippines has been one of the countries hardest hit in Asia by the two-year coronavirus pandemic, after more than 60,000 deaths and prolonged confinements caused the worst recession in the economy since World War II and worsening poverty. unemployment and hunger. As the pandemic eased earlier this year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused global inflation to skyrocket and sparked fears of food shortages.
Last week, Marcos Jr. announced that he would act as secretary of agriculture temporarily after taking office to prepare for possible food supply emergencies.
It also inherits the Muslim and communist insurgencies of decades ago, crime, great inequality and the political divisions inflamed by its election.
Congress last month proclaimed its landslide victory, as well as that of its formula mate Sara Duterte, the outgoing president’s daughter, in the run for vice presidency.
“I ask you all to pray for me, wish me the best. I want to do well because when the president does well, the country is doing well,” he said after his proclamation in Congress.
Marcos Jr. received more than 31 million votes and Sara Duterte more than 32 million of the more than 55 million votes cast in the May 9 elections: massive victories that will provide them with solid political capital as they face major challenges and doubts arising from the reputation of his parents. It was the first majority presidential victory in the Philippines in decades.
Members of the Philippine Armed Forces march to the swearing-in ceremony of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Outgoing President Duterte presided over a brutal anti-drug campaign that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead on an unprecedented scale of murders that the International Criminal Court was investigating as a possible crime against humanity. The investigation was suspended in November, but the ICC’s chief prosecutor’s office has called for it to resume immediately.
Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte have faced calls to help prosecute her father and cooperate with the international tribunal.
Marcos Jr., a former governor, congressman and senator, has refused to acknowledge the massive human rights abuses and corruption that marked his father’s reputation.
During the campaign, he and Sara Duterte avoided controversial issues and focused on a vague call for national unity.
His father was overthrown by a largely peaceful pro-democracy uprising in 1986 and died in 1989 while in exile in Hawaii without admitting any crime, including accusations that he, his family and friends were accumulate between $ 5,000 and $ 10 billion during office.
A Hawaiian court later found him responsible for human rights violations and awarded $ 2 billion to more than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit against him for torture, imprisonment, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
Imelda Marcos and her children were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991 to design an amazing investment of their political fortune, aided by a well-funded social media campaign to renew the family name. Imelda, the matriarch of the 92-year-old family, sat at the inauguration in a light blue traditional Filipino dress, kissed her son and posed for photos on stage.
The Marcos Jr. Alliance with Sara Duterte, whose father remains popular despite his human rights record, and a powerful name from one of the country’s best-known political dynasties, helped him secure the presidency. Many Filipinos also remained poor and disenchanted with the post-Marcos administrations, said Manila analyst Richard Heydarian.
“These allowed Mark to present himself as the alternative,” Heydarian said. “An unregulated social media landscape allowed its disinformation network to rename the dark days of martial law as supposedly the golden age of the Philippines.”
Along the main avenue of metropolitan Manila, the shrines and monuments of democracy erected after the fall of Marcos in 1986 stand out. The anniversary of his expulsion is celebrated every year as a special national holiday, and still exists. a presidential commission that has worked for decades to reclaim Marcos ’untapped wealth.
Marcos Jr. he has not explained how he will deal with such harsh memories of the past.