MANILA — The son and namesake of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos formally introduced his plan to run for president of the Philippines on Tuesday, greater than three a long time after a well-liked rebellion toppled his father’s brutal regime and restored democracy to the nation.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. joins the previous boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and Francisco Domagoso, the mayor of Manila, in looking for the presidency in subsequent yr’s election. Leni Robredo, the vp, and Sara Duterte-Carpio, the mayor of Davao Metropolis and daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, are additionally anticipated to enter the race.
Mr. Marcos, 64, as soon as served as a governor and a senator. He misplaced his bid as vp to Ms. Robredo in 2016, and sought to overturn that vote by accusing her of dishonest. In his announcement on Tuesday, Mr. Marcos mentioned he would concentrate on serving to the general public overcome the coronavirus pandemic, and vowed to carry the economic system out of disaster.
“That’s the reason I’m asserting right here at the moment my intention to run for the presidency of the Philippines within the coming Could 2022 elections,” Mr. Marcos mentioned. “I’ll deliver that type of unifying management again to our nation. Be a part of me on this noblest of causes and we’ll succeed.”
He additionally took an oath as a member of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, the political social gathering he can be representing within the election. The social gathering based by his father, the New Society Motion, additionally not too long ago endorsed him as a candidate.
Ferdinand Marcos dominated the nation with an iron fist for twenty years. He was defeated by a well-liked rebellion in 1986 and went into exile in Hawaii, the place he died three years later. He was accused of stealing as much as $10 billion from state coffers and leaving hundreds of activists lifeless or lacking.
His widow, Imelda R. Marcos, and youngsters have been later allowed to return to the Philippines, the place they labored to rehabilitate the household identify. Mrs. Marcos was discovered responsible of corruption in 2018, however has eluded jail time.
Mr. Duterte, who introduced his retirement final week, typically publicly thanked the Marcos household for backing his candidacy within the 2016 presidential election. Simply months into workplace, he allowed the dictator’s stays to be transferred to a nationwide cemetery in Manila.
Judy Taguiwalo, an activist with the Marketing campaign Towards the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Regulation, mentioned the announcement from Mr. Marcos was a “brazen present of disregard and contempt for the hundreds of Filipinos killed, disappeared, tortured, displaced and violated” throughout his father’s brutal regime.
“Bongbong Marcos and his household have lengthy been looking for to reclaim the very best seat of energy after they have been kicked overseas by the folks,” she mentioned, referring to Mr. Marcos by his nickname, “and at the moment, their shameless gall to return to the very best workplace in authorities is in full show.”
Mr. Marcos, she mentioned, was “spitting on the graves of the lifeless.”