Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at a campaign rally in Manila, on April 24, ahead of the presidential election on May 9.
Photographer: Jam Sta Rosa/AFP/Getty Images
Country Chased Dictator Marcos’s Billions for Years. Now His Son Could End Up in Charge.
While some $3 billion has been recovered since the family fled the country in 1986, about two dozen lawsuits are still pending to obtain another $2 billion.
For decades, successive Philippine leaders have fought to recoup as much as $10 billion siphoned during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Now his only son is set to oversee the search for the loot.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as Bongbong, has a double-digit lead in a May 9 election that in many ways has become a referendum on his father’s legacy. Barring a last-minute upset, Marcos Jr.’s return to the presidential palace where he spent his youth will show his success at redefining an era marred by authoritarianism and ostentatious corruption into one seen by his supporters as a “Golden Age” in the Southeast Asian nation of 109 million people.