U.S., China congratulate Marcos

THE UNITED States and China have congratulated former senator Bongbong Marcos for winning the presidency.

Marcos’s running mate Davao City Sara Duterte also won the vice presidency – an alliance that ushers in six years of governance that has some human rights activists concerned about the course their country may take with the pair in power.

“The United States congratulates President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on his election as the Philippines’ next president.  We look forward to working with President-elect Marcos to strengthen the enduring alliance between the United States and the Philippines,” the U.S. Embassy in Manila said in a statement released to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

It added: “Our special partnership is rooted in a long and deeply interwoven history, shared values and interests, and strong people-to-people ties.  As friends, partners, and allies, we will continue to collaborate closely with the Philippines to promote respect for human rights and to advance a free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific region.”

The White House also said that President Joseph Biden, Jr. spoke with Marcos to congratulate him on his election. “President Biden underscored that he looks forward to working with the President-elect to continue strengthening the U.S.-Philippine Alliance, while expanding bilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues, including the fight against Covid-19, addressing the climate crisis, promoting broad-based economic growth, and respect for human rights,” it said.

China

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said President Xi Jinping and Vice President Wang Qishan also congratulated Marcos and Duterte.

Huang said he also congratulated Marcos and Duterte. “I have extended warmest congratulations to President-elect Bongbong Marcos and Vice-President-elect Sara Duterte. With their vision for the Philippines and wisdom to navigate through different obstacles, I am confident that a Philippines under the next administration will surely demonstrate unprecedented unity to rise above all challenges, to recover from the pandemic and to prosper.”

“And I have no doubt that under the next administration, our bilateral relations will only become stronger, our peoples closer and our cooperation deeper and wider. We look forward to working with the next Philippine government to upgrade our Relationship of Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation to new heights and bring more tangible benefits to the peoples of our two countries,” Huang said.

Xi also spoke with Marcos and stressed that the two countries had been partners through thick and thin. “I attach great importance to the development of China-Philippines relations and am willing to establish a good working relationship with President-elect Marcos, adhere to good neighborliness and friendship,” Xi said.

Marcos

A former provincial governor, congressman and senator, the 64-year-old son who goes by his childhood nickname "Bongbong" has managed to return his family to the presidency 36 years after the "People Power" revolt ousted his father and sent him into exile for filching billions and mass human rights abuses.

His mother, Imelda Marcos, twice unsuccessfully attempted to retake the seat of power after returning with her children to the Philippines from exile in the United States, where her husband died in 1989.

Marcos Jr. has defended his father's legacy and steadfastly refuses to apologize for or acknowledge the atrocities and plunder during the dictatorship. Married to a lawyer, with whom he has three sons, he has stayed away from controversies, including a past tax conviction and the Marcos family's refusal to pay a huge estate tax. Throughout his campaign, he tenaciously stuck to a battle cry of national unity. He denies accusations that he financed a yearslong social media campaign that harnessed online trolls to smear opponents and whitewash the Marcos family's checkered history, daring critics to "show me one."

Duterte

Duterte, 43, is the outgoing mayor of Davao City, which was her father's constituency before he was elected president in 2016.

A lawyer and reserve officer in the Philippine army, Duterte has carved out her own political career and, although at times supportive of her father, is considered more levelheaded and pragmatic.

Duterte's party originally wanted her to succeed him, but she chose instead to run for vice-president.

A mother of three, she has been the longtime mayor of Davao, an economically vibrant city where the elder Duterte first carved a political name with his populist rhetoric and often bloody approach against criminality, especially the widespread trafficking and use of illegal drugs, before he rose to the presidency in 2016.  (AP, Mindanao Examiner)