Philippines Election 2022: After Marcos Jr’s win, hundreds of people stage protest against him

 | Updated: May 10, 2022, 01:54 PM IST

In Philippines Election 2022, the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos cemented a landslide victory on Tuesday, after Filipinos bet a familiar but tainted dynasty could ease rampant poverty while dismissing warnings the clan's return would deepen corruption and weaken democracy, AFP reported.

 

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The Philippines woke to a new but familiar political dawn on Tuesday, after an election triumph by Ferdinand Marcos Jr paved the way for a once unimaginable return to the country's highest office for its most notorious political dynasty.

Marcos's runaway victory in Monday's election now looks certain with 96 per cent of the eligible ballots counted in an unofficial tally, showing he has more than 30 million votes, double that of Robredo, reported by Reuters.

The Marcos victory is a hammer blow to millions of Filipinos, who hoped to reverse course after six bloody years of increasingly authoritarian rule by outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, AFP reported.

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Marcos fled into exile in Hawaii with his family during a 1986 "people power" uprising that ended his father's autocratic 20-year rule, and has served in Congress and the Senate since his return to the Philippines in 1991, an AFP report said. 

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Thousands of opponents of Marcos senior suffered persecution during a brutal 1972-1981 era of martial law, and the family name became synonymous with plunder, cronyism and extravagant living, with billions of dollars of state wealth disappearing.

The Marcos family has denied wrongdoing and many of its supporters, bloggers and social media influencers say historical accounts are distorted.

Marcos, who shied away from debates and interviews during the campaign, recently praised his father as a genius and a statesman but has also been irked by questions about the martial law era.
 

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Around 400 people, mostly students, staged a protest outside the election commission on Tuesday against Marcos and citing election irregularities.

The election commission, which said the poll was relatively peaceful, is due on Tuesday to rule on petitions seeking to overturn its dismissal of complaints trying to bar Marcos from the presidential race, Reuters reported.

Though Marcos, 64, campaigned on a platform of unity, political analysts say his presidency is unlikely to foster that, despite the margin of victory.
 

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Many among the millions of Robredo voters are angered by what they see as a brazen attempt by the disgraced former first family to use its mastery of social media to reinvent historical narratives of its time in power.

As the vote count showed the extent of the Marcos win, Robredo told her supporters to continue their fight for truth until the next election.

"It took time to build the structures of lies. We have time and opportunity to fight and dismantle these," she said, reported Reuters. 
 

(Photograph:AFP)