Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 10) — Former senator and defeated vice presidential bet Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is seeking a post in the 2022 elections.
The namesake of his father, the late strongman who ruled the country with an iron fist for two decades, however, said he has not yet considered any specific position.
“My plan is I will be a candidate in the next election. For what? We’ll still have to decide,” Marcos said in a forum in Manila on Friday.
“I can be a congressman, I can be a senator, pero hindi pa pwedeng magdesisyon ng ganito kaaga (but I still cannot decide this early),” he added.
After his defeat in the 2016 polls, Marcos has not yet given up on the seat taken by Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who had beaten her by a slim margin of 263,473 votes.
He recently appealed to the Supreme Court anew to revisit the poll recount conducted in Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Negros Oriental, where Robredo’s lead even rose by 15,000 votes.
READ: Marcos asks PET to ‘re-examine’ results of poll recount where Robredo won
“Nakakalungkot na it took over three years. Hindi na bale tungkol sa akin. Papaano ba tayo magsasabi na maayos ang pamahalaan– ang pagpapatakbo kung tatlong taon na, hindi natin nalalaman kung sino ang nanalong bise presidente?” said Marcos.
[Translation: It’s disappointing that it took over three years. It doesn’t matter anymore if this was about me. But how can we say that the governance and the decision on this is being properly implemented when we have reached three years not knowing who the true vice president is?]
Robredo did not mince words following Marcos’ recent appeal.
“Hindi ko alam kung magkakaroon pa ng ilang bilangan para makumbinsi na ako ‘yung nanalo. Nakakalungkot na walang pagtanggap,” she said Wednesday.
[Translation: I don’t know how many more times do we have to do a recount just so he will be convinced that I won. It’s saddening that he cannot accept it.]
The Presidential Commission on Good Government estimates that the late President Marcos and his family accumulated some $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth during his regime, which has also been accused of massive human rights violations.
Marcos and his family fled to exile in Hawaii after they were booted out by a “people’s power” revolt in 1986. Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989.
