The party founded by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. has nominated his only son and namesake as its presidential bet for the 2022 elections.
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, which was founded in 1978, announced its selection of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. at a national convention in Binangonan, Rizal on Friday days after the 49th anniversary of the dictator’s martial rule.
Marcos Jr. thanked party members at an online forum without accepting or rejecting the nomination. He said he was considering running for “any national position.”
“You cannot rush these things, and I fully intend to take all the available time that I have to make my decision,” Mr. Marcos said. On Wednesday he said running for President was part of his plan.
He said many of his supporters want him to run for the presidency, where he had fared better in opinion polls than for the vice-presidential post.
Mr. Marcos lost by a hair to Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo in 2016. The Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal rejected his election protest in February.
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law opposed Mr. Marcos’s presidential bid.
In a statement on Friday, the group said the presidential ambition of the dictator’s son “is a mad attempt” by the Marcos family to return to the presidential palace, allegedly to evade accountability for their crimes.
Mr. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial rule on Sept. 21, 1972, citing the communist threat. Proclamation 1081 abolished Congress and allowed him to consolidate power by extending his tenure beyond the two presidential terms allowed by the 1935 Constitution.
More than 70,000 people were jailed, about 34,000 were tortured and more than 3,000 people died under martial law, according to Amnesty International.
Mr. Marcos ended martial law in January 1981, but it wasn’t until five years later that he was toppled by a popular street uprising that sent him and his family into exile in the United States. — Bianca Angelica D. Anago and Alyssa Nicole O. Tan
