Dictator’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. before election victory in the Philippines

MANILA (Reuters) – The presidential election in the Philippines on Monday saw a victory for Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator.

After counting 61 percent of the vote, the electoral authority announced that Marcos had 21.7 million votes, more than twice as many as Vice President Leni Robredo. A spokesman for Marcos told CNN Philippines the candidate would not discuss victory until the final count. The winner of the election follows the controversial President Rodrigo Duterte, who was not allowed to stand again after six years.

The Marcos family is thus returning to power 36 years after the fall of the dictator. Marcos Jr., 64, has served as a governor, congressman and senator. His sister Imee is a Senator and his mother Imelda, the dictator’s widow, served four terms in the House of Representatives. Marcos Jr. has presented no real political program. The Marcos family has denied allegations that it siphoned billions of dollars in state funds during the father’s two decades of rule. Many of their supporters were born after the 1986 uprising. They believe the allegations were fabricated by their opponents.

The success of Marcos’ election campaign on social media is considered to be the reason for the emerging outcome of the election. The US company Alphabet announced in early December that it would not allow political advertising via its search engine in the Philippines. Experts attributed Duterte’s election victory in 2016 to a large extent to working on the Internet. A 2021 study found Filipinos consume more internet-based media than any other country. On average, people on the island state are online for almost eleven hours a day.