Ferdinand Marcos Jr. secured a commanding lead in the Philippines presidential race, setting the stage for him to replace the strongman President.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, spoke to the media in Manila on May 9.
As of early Tuesday morning local time, Marcos had almost 29.7 million votes, more than double the 14.2 million votes held by second-place candidate and current Vice President Leon.
The boxer and senator who launched a presidential bid last year focused on anti-corruption efforts is in a distant third place.
The daughter of a president is leading the race for vice president, according to a report.
Marcos' impending victory follows years of efforts to rehabilitate his family's image. Ferdinand Marcos was elected to the presidency in 1965, but remained in office for 21 years, during which he was accused of thousands of disappearances and killings. The elder Marcos was also accused of stealing billions of dollars from the nation's coffers, fueling a lavish lifestyle in a debt-ridden country: His wife. He left office and fled to Hawaii, where he died three years later. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s presidential campaign has sought to portray his father's time in office as an era of strong economic growth, denying widespread reports of corruption and human rights abuses during the Marcos era.
The Philippines' president, who has led the country since 2016 but is barred from running for a second term, was not allowed to run for a second term. His government has been accused of killing scores of people in its pursuit of drug traffickers and he has threatened to shoot people who violate the rules.
If Marcos is certified as the winner, he may continue some of the policies of the man. Marcos is expected to seek stronger ties with China, despite the fact that he has pledged to remain allies of the United States. Marcos has suggested that he will continue the war on drugs, but that he will devote more resources to rehabilitation instead of enforcement, and that he won't assist with an International Criminal Court investigation into evidence of extrajudicial killings during the drug war.
The President of the Philippines will not be running for president.
30 years after the revolution, some Filipinos are nostalgic for the golden age of Marcos.
The brutal history of the Philippines is being whitewashed.
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