Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos has expressed his confidence that he is just days away from becoming vice president.
The son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos believes his legal challenge against the elections of Leni Robredo is about to go in his favour, placing him a just heartbeat away from leading the Philippines.
Speaking today (Thursday, October 5) Bongbong also said his family was in talks with the president to end the government’s hunt for the billions of dollars allegedly stolen by his parents.
Bongbong, aged 60, narrowly lost the vice presidential election last year but filed a case with the Supreme Court alleging that Robredo cheated by manipulating vote counting machines.
“We are definitely sure that when the recount starts the true result will emerge and prove that the votes in the vice-presidential election had been incorrectly counted,” he said.
Should he succeed, it would cement his family’s astonishing political comeback, more than 30 years after the People Power revolution ended his father’s 20-year rule and forced the family into exile.
Ferdinand Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, amid accusations that he and his cronies had stolen up to $10 billion from state coffers during his brutal regime.
However his family, led by notorious shoe-lover Imelda, returned to the Philippines after his death and began to rebuild their political power.
Imelda, 88, continues to represent the family’s northern Philippine power base, Ilocos Norte, in Congress.
Mother’s dream for Bongbong Marcos
She has long said that she dreams of Bongbong Marcos, who was a senator from 2010 until last year, becoming president.
In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately. The vice president takes over should the president die or become incapacitated.
The president, 72, has admitted to having a range of health problems, including Buerger’s disease, which was caused by smoking. He has also admitted that he dealt with chronic pain by overdosing on fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid.
As we reported in August, the president said that the Marcos clan had offered to turn give the government some of its assets, “including a few gold bars”. However, just days later Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos — Bongbong’s sister — denied that any negotiations had been held on the matter.
Speaking at a forum in Quezon City today, Bongbong said that the family was offering to sign a “quit claim” deed. This would identify properties and assets it had acquired legally and relinquish any claim to whatever else the government finds.
“If the government is saying we are hiding other things, we will help you find it and you can have it,” he said.
“I have expressed the same position that the family has held since 1986 – that we have identified whatever belongs to the family, the provenance of those assets, those properties, whatever they might be.
“And if the government is saying that we’re hiding something, we will help you find it and you can have it.”