Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. seems to be set to win the Philippines presidential election, in line with the Related Press. A win would mark the return of the Marcos household to energy, greater than three many years after being compelled to flee the nation amid a well-liked rebellion following brutal, dictatorial rule.
The victory would even be the end result of the household’s methodical work to rehabilitate its picture. Bongbong Marcos’ namesake and father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was president of the Philippines from 1965-1986, and TIME lined the rise and fall of the household’s rule over the nation over 20 years.
Learn extra: A Dictator’s Son Rewrites Historical past on TikTok in His Bid to Turn out to be the Philippines’ Subsequent President
When the elder Marcos was elected in December 1965, after 48 years of American occupation and 20 years of independence, TIME known as the Philippines “Asia’s freest democracy” and profiled the chief a couple of 12 months into the job within the Oct. 21, 1966, concern.
“Because the sixth President of the Philippine Republic, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, 49, has been in workplace solely ten months, however in that point he has taken important steps towards offering the Philippines with the dynamic, selfless management it wants to deal with the Southeast Asian burdens of poverty, lawlessness, Communist insurgency and—most necessary—the search for nationwide identification after centuries of colonial occupation,” TIME reported. “Together with his unmatched struggle document, his dazzling political success, and his stern insistence on an Asian answer to Asian issues, Marcos—with luck—may meet that want. ‘It’s all there,’ says a Washington admirer. Whether or not the complete potential is ever realized relies on Marcos.”
The glowing accolades proved misplaced, nonetheless. Marcos’ tenure finally amounted to “20 years of corrupt rule,” as TIME put it in 2001. He invoked martial legislation in 1972 for the primary time within the nation’s historical past, following an unsuccessful assassination try on certainly one of his chief aides. Two years later, he spoke to the journal, and TIME’s Hong Kong bureau chief, Roy Rowan, wrote that Marcos began off the interview by declaring: “’By no means make an enormous resolution whenever you’re indignant, hungry or glad.’”
Martial legislation lasted till 1981, and through this era, TIME chronicled how authorities arrested 1000’s of scholars, journalists, labor leaders and politicians, and the federal government shuttered information retailers. Marcos’s enemies confronted detention, torture, and homicide. His household went years with out paying taxes and was estimated to have amassed billions of {dollars}, some siphoned from treasury funds and stored in offshore Swiss financial institution accounts. First Girl Imelda Marcos made headlines together with her lavish way of life and collections of 888 purses, 15 mink coats, and 1,060 pairs of sneakers—lots of of that are on show at a museum in Metro Manila. When TIME requested Imelda how wealthy she was in 2006, she replied, “If you know the way wealthy you’re, my expensive, you then’re probably not wealthy.”
Learn extra: How Philippine Presidential Elections Grew to become All Concerning the Leisure Issue
Marcos was ousted from energy throughout a democratic revolution in 1986, and he was changed by Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno Aquino, Marcos’s chief political rival. She was named TIME’s Individual of the Yr for 1986. “No matter else occurs in her rule,” stated TIME, “she has additionally resuscitated [the Philippines’] sense of identification and satisfaction.” Ferdinand Marcos Sr. died three years later in exile in Hawaii, passing away on Sep. 28, 1989, on the age of 72. “He died his nation’s biggest villain,” TIME wrote in his obituary, revealed within the Oct. 9, 1989 concern.
Marcos Jr. was in a position to safe a historic 33-point lead in pre-election polls forward of the election by recasting his father’s dictatorial rule as a golden age for the Philippines. He skipped debates and gave few interviews. He emphasised unity in his marketing campaign, however was gentle on coverage particulars, TIME’s Chad de Guzman reported from Manila.
In unofficial election outcomes Tuesday, Marcos had practically 30.8 million votes, in line with the AP. That’s greater than double the votes of his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo.
Politics watchers advised TIME just lately that they assume Marcos Jr. shall be a distinct form of chief from his father. As Richard Heydarian, a Manila-based professor of political science, put it, “I doubt the Philippines will transfer in direction of a twentieth century-style dictatorship. I feel that’s form of passé.” Nonetheless, solely time will inform; his father’s tenure started with comparable hopes.
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