The return of the Marcos dynasty to the Philippines

The Philippines has elected Bongbong Marcos as president, three decades after his family was ousted from power in a popular revolution. What does that bode for the future?

Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr
Bongbong Marcos: never underestimate the power of authoritarian nostalgia
(Image credit: © Eloisa Lopez/Reuters/Alamy)

“I chose Bongbong Marcos as my president because I believe he can help our country be great again,” observed a 50-year-old Manila housewife on news that the son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos has won a landslide victory in the Philippines’ presidential election – marking “a remarkable comeback” for the Marcos family 36 years after they were run out of the country, says The Economist. Never underestimate the power of authoritarian nostalgia: it has established a new alliance of hardliners in the country. Marcos Jr’s vice-president is Sara Duterte, daughter of the current “strongman” leader. “In a system dominated by dynasties”, this is an “all-star team”.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.