The son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos commanded a massive early lead in yesterday’s presidential election, according to an unofficial tally of results that pointed to a historic landslide victory.
Nearly 40 years after his namesake father was deposed by a popular revolt and his family chased into exile, Ferdinand Marcos Jr was seen doubling the tally of his nearest rival.
With more than 60 percent of the nation’s precincts reporting, Marcos Jr had garnered more than 20 million votes, to liberal candidate Leni Robredo’s 9.4 million.
Photo: Reuters
In the Philippines, the winner only has to receive more votes than any other candidate.
However, if sustained, the tally — published by local media from Philippine Commission on Elections figures — would make Marcos Jr the first Philippine president since his father’s ouster to be elected with an absolute majority.
It would also signal an astonishing turnaround for the fortunes of the Marcos clan, who have come from being pariahs to occupying the presidential palace within a generation.
“This will be a historic election,” said Cleve Arguelles, an assistant lecturer in political science at De La Salle University in Manila.
“Until the last vote is counted, it’s not yet the end of everything,” Philippine Commission on Elections Commissioner George Garcia said.
However, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Marcos Jr’s nine rivals, vying to succeed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in elections seen by many as a make-or-break moment for the Philippines’ fragile democracy.
The results would be a crushing blow for supporters of Robredo, the incumbent vice president who turned her campaign into a movement to defend democracy and brought almost 1 million people onto the streets in one recent rally.
Robredo, a 57-year-old lawyer and economist, had promised to clean up the dirty style of politics that has long plagued the feudal and corrupt democracy, where a handful of surnames hold sway.
Marcos Jr and running mate Sara Duterte — both offspring of authoritarian leaders — have insisted they are best qualified to “unify” the country.
From before dawn, mask-clad voters formed long lines to cast their ballots in 70,000 polling stations across the archipelago.
Polls officially closed at 7pm.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
RSS