MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake son of an ousted dictator, praised his father’s legacy and glossed over its violent previous as he was sworn in as Philippine president Thursday after a shocking election victory that opponents say was pulled off by whitewashing his household’s picture.
His rise to energy, 36 years after an army-backed “Individuals Energy” revolt booted his father from workplace and into world infamy, upends politics within the Asian democracy, the place a public vacation, monuments and the Philippine Structure stand as reminders of the top of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s tyrannical rule.
However in his inaugural speech, Marcos Jr. defended the legacy of his late father, who he mentioned completed many issues that had not been executed for the reason that nation’s independence.
“He acquired it executed, typically with the wanted assist, typically with out. So will or not it's along with his son,” he mentioned to applause from his supporters within the crowd. “You'll get no excuses from me.”
“My father constructed extra and higher roads, produced extra rice than all administrations earlier than his,” Marcos Jr. mentioned. He praised the infrastructure initiatives by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who ended his six-year time period additionally with a legacy of violence, strong-man rule and contempt for individuals who stood in his path.
The brand new president referred to as for unity, saying “we'll go farther collectively than towards one another. He didn't contact on the human rights atrocities and plunder his father was accused of, saying he wouldn't speak concerning the previous however the future.
Activists and survivors of the martial regulation period below his father protested Marcos Jr.’s inauguration, which occurred at a noontime ceremony on the steps of the Nationwide Museum in Manila. 1000's of law enforcement officials, together with anti-riot contingents, SWAT commandos and snipers, had been deployed within the bayside vacationer district for safety.
Chinese language Vice President Wang Qishan and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, had been amongst international dignitaries, who attended the occasion, which featured a 21-gun salute, a army parade and air drive jet fly-bys.
“Wow is that this actually occurring?” requested Bonifacio Ilagan, a 70-year-old activist who was detained and severely tortured by counterinsurgency forces throughout the elder Marcos’s rule. “For victims of martial regulation like me, this can be a nightmare.”
Marching within the streets, the protesters displayed placards that learn, ”By no means once more to martial regulation” and “Reject Marcos-Duterte.”
Such historic baggage and antagonism stand to hound Marcos Jr. throughout a six-year presidency starting at a time of intense crises.
The Philippines has been among the many nations worst-hit in Asia by the two-year coronavirus pandemic, after greater than 60,000 deaths and prolonged lockdowns despatched the economic system to its worst recession since World Battle II and worsened poverty, unemployment and starvation. Because the pandemic was easing early this yr, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despatched world inflation hovering and sparked fears of meals shortages.
Final week, Marcos Jr. introduced he would function secretary of agriculture briefly after he takes workplace to arrange for attainable meals provide emergencies.
He additionally inherits decades-old Muslim and communist insurgencies, crime, gaping inequality and political divisions infected by his election.
Congress final month proclaimed his landslide victory, in addition to that of his working mate Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing president, within the vice-presidential race.
“I ask you all pray for me, want me nicely. I need to do nicely as a result of when the president does nicely, the nation does nicely,” he mentioned after his congressional proclamation.
Marcos Jr. obtained greater than 31 million votes and Sara Duterte greater than 32 million of the greater than 55 million votes solid within the Could 9 election — large victories that can present them strong political capital as they face great challenges in addition to doubts arising from their fathers’ reputations. It was the primary majority presidential victory within the Philippines in many years.
Outgoing President Duterte presided over a brutal anti-drugs marketing campaign that left 1000's of principally poor suspects lifeless in an unprecedented scale of killings the Worldwide Prison Court docket was investigating as a attainable crime towards humanity. The probe was suspended in November, however the ICC chief prosecutor has requested that or not it's resumed instantly.
Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte have confronted calls to assist prosecute her father and cooperate with the worldwide courtroom.
Marcos Jr., a former governor, congressman and senator, has refused to acknowledge large human rights abuses and corruption that marked his father’s popularity.
Throughout the marketing campaign, he and Sara Duterte prevented controversial points and centered on a obscure name for nationwide unity.
His father was toppled by a largely peaceable pro-democracy rebellion in 1986, and died in 1989 whereas in exile in Hawaii with out admitting any wrongdoing, together with accusations that he, his household and cronies amassed an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion whereas in workplace.
A Hawaii courtroom later discovered him chargeable for human rights violations and awarded $2 billion to greater than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit towards him for torture, incarceration, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
Imelda Marcos and her kids had been allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991 to engineer a shocking reversal of their political fortunes, helped by a well-funded social media marketing campaign to refurbish the household title. Imelda, the 92-year-old household matriarch, sat in on the inauguration in a standard light-blue Filipiniana gown, kissed her son and posed for photos on the stage.
Marcos Jr.’s alliance with Sara Duterte, whose father stays fashionable regardless of his human rights report, and a strong title of one of many nation’s most well-known political dynasties, helped him seize the presidency. Many Filipinos too remained poor and grew disenchanted with post-Marcos administrations, Manila-based analyst Richard Heydarian mentioned.
“These allowed the Marcoses to current themselves as the choice,” Heydarian mentioned. “An unregulated social media panorama allowed their disinformation community to rebrand the darkish days of martial regulation as supposedly the golden age of the Philippines.”
Alongside metropolitan Manila’s most important avenue, democracy shrines and monuments erected after Marcos’ 1986 downfall stand prominently. The anniversary of his ouster is widely known every year as a particular nationwide vacation, and a presidential fee that has labored for many years to recuperate ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses nonetheless exists.
Marcos Jr. has not defined how he'll take care of such stark reminders of the previous.
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Related Press journalists Joeal Calupitan, Aaron Favila and Iya Forbes in Manila, Philippines, and Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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Comply with AP’s protection of the Asia-Pacific area at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
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