When Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was sworn in as President of the Philippines on June 30, he took his oath in front of the former legislative building where his father entered politics, and swore on the same Bible used by the elder Mr. Marcos at his 1965 inauguration.
For the victims of the tyrannical rule of Mr. Marcos it was an insulting tribute to the dead dictator. But it came as no surprise.
The younger Mr. Marcos rode to a landslide election victory with a campaign that relied heavily on the fiction of a triumphant Golden Age under his father, promoted by a well-oiled disinformation machine that blatantly ignored the thousands of people imprisoned, tortured or murdered by the regime and the estimated $5 Billion to $10 Billion transferred by the Marcos family.
No, truth and responsibility will not be hallmarks of Marcos 2.0., and we Filipinos are afraid of what comes next. The world has already seen the consequences of autocrats and their false stories.
Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” dog whistle appealed to delusions of lost white privilege, ultimately leading to the deadly attack by a pro-Trump mob on the U.S. Capitol. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India evokes a mythical golden age of Hindu glory that has exacerbated communal violence, and Vladimir Putin’s repression and military adventures are driven by rosy memories of the Soviet Union and Tsarist Russia.
Now it is the turn of the Philippines and that comes at a vulnerable time for our country.
Philippine democracy is already under threat after the six-year tenure of Mr. Marcos’ predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, a bully who spews hatred and insults and belittles and threatens the press and whose cruel war on drugs has seen thousands of people killed†
Mr. Marcos, now 64 but still known by the childhood nickname Bongbong, is more pleasant, even anodyne, by comparison. He counters anger at his family’s crimes with an easy smile and empty calls for unity, dismissing critics as divisive. But he is his father’s son.
mr. Marcos has repeatedly denied or downplayed his family’s crimes and refused to apologize† He stood by while his supporters a fire hose of historical distortions the elder mr. depicting Marcos as a brilliant leader who lifted the Philippines to heights of peace, prosperity and global leadership unmatched by subsequent democratic governments. In one claim propagated by Marcos loyalists, the clan’s legendary wealth came not from looting, but from thousands of tons of gold given to the elder Mr Marcos by a non-existent Philippine royal family. According to this fairy tale, US-backed liberal elites have unjustly seized power and plunged the country into poverty and despair.
Missing from this story is the massive People Power uprising in 1986 by Filipinos fed up with the Marcos family’s arrogance and extravagance. After supporting his corrupt regime for two decades, the United States also turned against Marcos, fearing that a regime collapse could threaten US military bases in the Philippines. The family – a 28-year-old Bongbong among them – was taken aboard US Army helicopters filled with loot and sent to exile in Hawaii, where the elder Marcos died three years later.
Dictatorship gave way to a liberal constitution and multiparty elections. But democracy faced an uphill battle. Entrenched political families ruled their fiefs, blocked land redistribution and other reforms, and used public office to extend their privileges. Corruption flourished, institutions remained weak, and little was done to address crushing poverty. Many Filipinos began to feel that democracy had failed them.
The remaining Marcoses, meanwhile, were allowed to return home in 1991 to face several charges. The younger Mr Marcos was… convicted in the 1990s from failing to file tax returns during the family’s years in power, and his mother, Imelda Marcos, was convicted in 2018 to 42 years in prison for corruption. Neither has served prison terms. They began to revive the family’s image from their northern stronghold Ilocos Norte, won office and used their money and networks to forge alliances with national political leaders.
And now we have President Bongbong. mr. Marcos has never shown himself to be presidential material. He was known as an absent governor of Illinois and as a senator was often a no-show† He keeps lying about get a degree in Oxford†
The signs of what kind of president he will be are already visible.
His cabinet appointments included a justice minister who, as a congressman, accused the liberal opposition of being communists and played a key role in the block a new license for the country’s largest broadcaster after it angered Mr Duterte with criticisms of him. Also Mr Marcos indicated last fall that he will not assist in an International Criminal Court investigation into Mr Duterte’s war on drugs.
Unfortunately for the Filipinos, one of the few remaining institutions that can curb its power – the country’s traditionally boisterous press – is on the defensive. Under Mr Duterte, the Philippines has steadily crept in world ranking of press freedomand one day before the inauguration of Mr Marco, the Duterte government ordered the shutdown of Rappler, the feisty news site co-founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, sent a chill through the Philippine media. That should suit Mr. Marcos, with his aversion to liability. He shunned the media and its tough questions during the campaign and skipped most presidential debates.
He will likely face continued opposition from the remnants of the Democratic constituency that toppled his father’s regime — liberal elements of the Catholic Church, business and middle class — and will no doubt do his best to neutralize them. Since his inauguration, pro-Marcos trolls have begun to set their sights on opponents, accusing… supporters of the opposition and journalists communist allies and a respected historian of being an opposition lackey.
As it should be, Mr Marcos is otherwise unobtrusive inaugural address praised his father’s strength in the face of unspecified foreign threats and boasted of the roads his father built and the vast rice crops during that mythical golden age.
The Philippines doesn’t need its kind of selective amnesia. More than ever, it needs a strong commitment to democracy based on accountability, respect for the opposition and the will to face painful truths.
Those elements were sorely lacking under the first Marcos presidency. Don’t expect the second to be much different.
Sheila Coronel (@SheilaCoronel) is the co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University.
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