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Marcos Jr: Philippine dictator's son out to revive family brand
In the decades since a popular uprising toppled the strongman and chased the family into US exile, the Marcoses have staged a remarkable political comeback.
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Bongbong Marcos (left), former senator and son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, greets supporters during a vigil in front of the Supreme Court in Manila on July 10, 2017. Marcos, who ran for vice-president in 2016 elections, filed an electoral protest at the Supreme Court against incumbent Vice-President Leni Robredo. (AFP/Ted Aljibe)
F
erdinand Marcos Jr, whose father and namesake was the notorious Philippine dictator, is angling for the ultimate rehabilitation of his family brand: capturing the presidency.
In the decades since a popular uprising toppled the strongman and chased the family into US exile, the Marcoses have staged a remarkable political comeback.
But Marcos Jr, 64, known by his nickname "Bongbong", made it the furthest yet when he almost won the vice presidency in the 2016 election that vaulted Rodrigo Duterte to the nation's top office.
Marcos Jr's links to his father, especially the bloody repression of the martial law years, have made him one of the nation's most polarising politicians.
But that has not stopped him from declaring his ambition to run for the presidency in 2022 when Duterte's constitutionally-mandated single term ends.
Links to father's crimes
Marcos Jr was at boarding school in Britain when he received word in 1972 that his father had declared martial law, unleashing large-scale corruption and a bloody crackdown on dissent.
