‘Bongbong’, the son, leads Marcos revival in Philippines

Manila, May 4 

For the son and namesake of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, winning the vice presidency in next week's election is as much about restoring his family's tainted image as it is about making the country a better place.

"Bongbong", as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is known, has been leading most opinion polls ahead of the May 9 election, marking the revival of a name synonymous with martial law, torture and billions of dollars of plundered wealth. A poll published on Wednesday had him slipping to second place for the first time, but he was just two points behind Congresswoman Leni Robredo.

Marcos Jr., 58, says his family is not the only issue and his popularity comes from public disenchantment with a political establishment that emerged after his father's overthrow in the iconic "people power" revolution in 1986.

"We keep hearing about all these wonderful things happening to our economy and yet people are poor," he said in an interview. "That's where the frustration comes from... There's clearly a desire for something different."

Unlike most other countries, elections for the Philippine president and vice-president are held separately and the two can be political rivals. The maverick mayor of the southern city of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte, 71, is leading opinion polls for president.

The senior Marcos was president of the Philippines for two decades, including nine years as the head of a martial law government.

Later governments have documented 75,000 cases of torture, illegal detention and disappearances in those years. The rule by the senior Marcos and his wife Imelda, known for her lavish lifestyle and thousands of pairs of shoes, has been called a kleptocratic "conjugal dictatorship".

The family fled to exile in Hawaii after the ouster, where the senior Marcos died in 1989. After that, the widespread hatred of the Marcos family began to ebb.

Bongbong Marcos returned from Hawaii in 1991 and rebuilt the family's political base in its stomping grounds of Ilocos Norte province, serving as governor, congressman and senator. His mother Imelda is seeking re-election next week to the House of Representatives from a district in the province, while his sister Imee is seeking re-election as the provincial governor.

Political strategist Pastor "Boy" Saycon says the Marcos years were not all that bad, although he spent three months in jail at that time when the government rounded up student activists. "There was this discipline being instilled," he said. — Reuters