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Philippine election: US lost the plot, China misread ‘mahal kita’
The Philippines, not unlike the rest of the world, will confront the specter of five Fs. The prices of food, fuel, fertilizer, farmhands and baby formula will be ticking northward.
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Every vote counts: A screen shows partial Philippine election results for then-presidential candidate Ferdinand (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
E
lecting a leader whose entire family has, at one stage or another, been tainted by grand larceny of the state, not to mention prolonged martial law under the organized pretense of reducing the communist insurgency to a pulp -- one of the longer leftist “insurgencies” the world has ever had to witness -- does look frustrating.
It is as if the national mindset of the Philippines, a country of warm and affectionate people, has been lobotomized.
But upon closer inspection, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s presidential victory on May 9 amid a sea of candidates, including famed boxer Manny Pacquiao, has been dogged by numerous controversies that are not necessarily related to his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Not that Bongbong, now certifiably the president for the next six years, was affected by the hedonistic indulgences of the mother Imelda.
All that of course came to an abrupt halt on Feb. 25 1986, when then-president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, refused to further countenance the exuberant behavior of the former first couple in the Malacanang Palace.
But this coup de grace of the Marcoses, which Bongbong has now overturned, was preceded by other events. Precisely because of the grave and serious manner with which his father lost his 20-year reign, nearly causing his entire family to be killed by a mob, Bongbong changed his tactics.
If the name Bongbong was not hilarious enough, he made it consciously so. Indeed, he took to leveraging Filipinos' considerable resources in facing all adversities, be they human-made or caused by the force of nature, with sardonic and self-deprecating humor, with more slapstick jokes and a penchant for fiesta and siesta.
