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The following Philippine president will succeed the tough-talking populist Rodrigo Duterte, whose conflict on medicine left hundreds lifeless, and a rustic with an economic system and well being system ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Presidents serve solely a single time period and are elected individually from the vp.
Marcos and his operating mate, Sara Duterte-Carpio, Davao Metropolis mayor and daughter of the incumbent president, take pleasure in a big lead over their opponents, in line with the most recent polls. Different candidates for the highest place are Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, boxing famous person Manny Pacquiao, former actor and Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso, and former senator and police chief Panfilo Lacson.
A Marcos presidency will not be as brutal as his father’s dictatorship and even Duterte’s time period, however it’s anticipated to finish the whitewashing of the household status and shield it from accountability. Between $5-to-10 billion was estimated stolen from public coffers throughout the household’s two-decade rule, and solely a fraction has been recovered. The household fled to Hawaii, the place they lived in exile, after the 1986 Individuals Energy revolution. They returned to the Philippines within the Nineteen Nineties.
The household continues to face a number of controversies, together with a graft conviction for Marcos’s mom, former first woman Imelda, and the property owing billions in tax liabilities. Up to now, no family members have served jail time.
“If there actually was ill-gotten wealth, it will have been retrieved a very long time in the past,” mentioned Jesse James Pangilinan, 24, a Manila resident who forged a vote for Marcos and Duterte on Monday morning. He mentioned he believed the considerations concerning the Marcos property’s unpaid taxes however dismissed them as a result of “they’re not being compelled to pay it.”
Companions Dante Mapili, 30, and Jonariza Estera, 37, additionally voted for Marcos, saying they believed in his message of unity and had been impressed by how he didn’t marketing campaign negatively. In addition they don’t imagine the household stole from authorities funds. “From what I do know, he was already wealthy,” mentioned Estera.
“I heard Marcos’s father was paid in gold if he received a case,” Mapili added, echoing a well-liked conspiracy concept to elucidate the household’s wealth. A few of its believers assume the Marcoses will distribute their very own fortune in the event that they return to energy.
If he wins, Marcos can also be anticipated to protect the outgoing Duterte from potential prosecution on the Worldwide Prison Court docket for crimes towards humanity throughout his drug conflict, which left hundreds lifeless in extrajudicial killings.
His important challenger is unbiased candidate Robredo, a vocal critic of Marcos and the elder Duterte — although she was his vp. She has been the prime goal of disinformation operations and lags behind Marcos by 33 factors.
Her supporters imagine it could possibly be a a lot nearer struggle, because the groundswell of volunteers for her — which incorporates celebrities, church employees, farmers and college students — culminated in a star-studded closing rally on Saturday that drew a crowd of greater than half one million.
A public-interest lawyer and former congresswoman, she narrowly defeated Marcos for the vice presidency in 2016. He spent the following 5 years contesting the choice till the Supreme Court docket, appearing as election tribunal, unanimously dismissed his problem final yr.
In a sleekly edited video launched final week, Marcos stood on a podium and referred to as on his supporters to be vigilant. “Allow us to shield our determination and never permit it to be stolen from us once more,” he mentioned.
Marcos is already crafting a story simply in case Robredo pulls off an upset, mentioned Julio Teehankee, a political scientist on the De La Salle College. However as a result of Marcos is the “de facto administration candidate … the opposition isn’t in any place to cheat within the election,” he added.
The officers on the Fee on Elections are all Duterte appointees, and the physique beforehand dismissed disqualification circumstances towards Marcos regarding a earlier conviction for being unable to file revenue tax returns.
This has raised concern about whether or not the Philippines will be capable of have a clear election, on high of the swirling mass of disinformation within the public sphere fueled by on-line armies of Marcos and Duterte supporters. Electoral violence and vote-buying are additionally frequent occurrences in a rustic lengthy characterised by patronage politics dominated by a number of households.
The Marcos-Duterte tandem is a political marriage of two of essentially the most highly effective dynasties within the nation. Specialists keep that this technique, wherein households and personalities dominate politics, is intently linked to corruption and poverty, as authorities spending and coverage are related to private favors and never public obligations.
But when Philippine historical past is any indicator, Teehankee warned, one other corruption scandal could possibly be “deadly to [Marcos’s] return to energy.” After the 1986 revolution, a second Individuals Energy rebellion in 2001 unseated then-President Joseph Estrada following corruption scandals hounding his time period.
If Robredo’s grass-roots marketing campaign is sustained after elections, it will develop into a serious drive within the opposition.
“If it’s a Robredo presidency, this will probably be a motion that may be a accomplice,” mentioned Barry Gutierrez, her spokesman. If not, it might mark the beginnings of a brand new opposition indifferent from conventional events. “It’s an opposition I’m excited to see.”
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