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MANILA, May 9 (Reuters) – Ferdinand Marcos Jr clinched a stunning runaway victory in the Philippines’ presidential election on Monday in the first win by a majority since a 1986 revolution that toppled his late father’s two-decade dictatorship.

An unofficial tally showed Marcos, popularly known as “Bongbong”, had surpassed the 27.5 million votes needed for a majority, setting the stage for a once unthinkable return to rule of the Marcos family, 36 years after its humiliating retreat into exile during a “people power” uprising.

“I hope you won’t get tired of trusting us,” Marcos told supporters in remarks streamed on Facebook, a platform at the core of his political strategy.

“We have plenty of things to do,” he said, adding “an endeavour as large as this does not involve one person.”

Marcos Jr had 29.9 million votes, double that of Leni Robredo, the vice president, with 93.8% of the eligible ballots counted, according to the unofficial Commission on Elections (COMELEC) tally. Turnout was about 80%.

An official result is expected around the end of the month.

Despite its fall from grace, the Marcos family returned from exile in the 1990s and has remained a powerful force in Philippine politics, retaining its influence with vast wealth and far-reaching connections.

Marcos Jr has served as a governor, congressman and senator, his sister, Imee, is currently a senator and mother Imelda, the influential power-broker and widow of the late dictator, served four terms in congress. Marcos Jr’s son Ferdinand Alexander was poised to win a seat in congress on Monday.

STRONGMAN APPROACH

Marcos, 64, has presented no real policy platform, campaigning on a simple but ambiguous message of unity.

His six-year presidency is expected to provide continuity from outgoing leader Rodrigo Duterte, whose ruthless, strongman approach proved popular and helped him to consolidate power rapidly.

Analysts expect Marcos to focus on completing Duterte’s multi-billion-dollar infrastructure upgrade and to seek close ties with China, but some say existing problems of corruption and nepotism in the Philippines could worsen.

A major boon for Marcos was him securing the president’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, as his running mate, tapping her father’s vast support and helping Marcos to make inroads in new voter territory. The unofficial count showed Duterte-Carpio had won the vice presidency with more than triple the votes of her nearest opponent.

Marcos was criticized for skipping presidential debates and made few media appearances during the campaign, enabling him to limit scrutiny and control his message via a network of influencers and bloggers granted broad access to his events.

Monday’s outcome demonstrates the huge impact of a sophisticated social media operation aimed at younger Filipinos born after the revolution, and a proliferation of misinformation challenging historical accounts of the Marcos martial law era.

His camp insists it has not engaged in disinformation.

The Marcos family lived famously opulent lifestyles, but denies siphoning off billions of dollars of state wealth while at the helm of what historians consider one of Asia’s most notorious kleptocracies. Many of Marcos Jr’s supporters are convinced those past narratives of the former first family were lies peddled by his opponents.

As the votes poured in, supporters outside the Marcos campaign headquarters jumped, waved flags and chanted “Marcos, Marcos, Marcos” ecstatically.

“We are very happy because of his wide lead… unity really prevailed,” said Melai Ilagan, 20.

“Bongbong Marcos’s wish that we all unite is becoming a reality.”

Though Marcos refrained from giving a victory speech, his son, Ferdinand, said it was time to revel in their win.

“We should celebrate because I can say we already won,” he told supporters. “Let us make true the promise of BBM, we will all rise again,” he said, referring to his father.

‘STRUCTURE OF LIES’

The win avenges Marcos Jr’s loss to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential election, a narrow defeat by just 200,000 votes that Marcos fought unsuccessfully to overturn.

In a clear swipe at Marcos, Robredo urged supporters to keep up the fight for the truth.

“We have many more things to fight for. Do not let go,” she told a news conference.

“Keep standing. Insist on the truth. It took time to build the structures of lies. We have time and opportunity to fight and dismantle these.”

About 65 million Filipinos were eligible to cast ballots for the president, vice president, legislative seats and thousands of local posts from governors to city mayors and councillors.

COMELEC said the election was relatively peaceful, with 15 security incidents, including three killings of security personnel in a region prone to political violence.

A high turnout caused long queues at polling centers, exacerbated in some areas by malfunctions in 533 of the 106,000 counting machines.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers, whose members include victims of persecution under Marcos senior’s martial law era, said the election was beyond comprehension and took aim at what it said was Marcos’s historical revisionism.

“Fact can really be stranger than fiction. Or to be more precise, fiction can be repackaged into fact,” it said in a statement.

“We shall carry on the fight even more intensely and await our redemption from this resurrected nightmare.”

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales; Additional reporting by Eloisa Lopez, Adrian Portugal and Enrico dela Cruz; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)

MANILA, May 10 (Reuters) – The Philippines’ election body on Tuesday upheld its earlier decisions that dismissed petitions to disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr from the presidential race.

Marcos, the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, is poised to win the Southeast Asian nation’s presidency, according to an unofficial tally by the poll body.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)

((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8841 8914;))

Corrects alert that was attached to May 9 story to add dropped word ‘million’ to Marcos vote tally; other alerts in the series are repeated without changes

CORRECTED-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARCOS JR HAD 17.54 MILLION (ADDS ‘MILLION’) VOTES WITH 53.5% OF VOTES COUNTED IN UNOFFICIAL TALLY BY POLL BODY

PHILIPPINES’ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARCOS JR HAS MORE THAN DOUBLE THE VOTES OF RIVAL LENI ROBREDO – POLL BODY

PHILIPPINES’ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARCOS JR HAD 20 MLN VOTES WITH 61.05% OF VOTES COUNTED IN UNOFFICIAL POLL BODY TALLY

PHILIPPINES’ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MARCOS JR HAD 20 MLN VOTES VERSUS 9.49 MLN VOTES FOR RIVAL LENI ROBREDO – POLL BODY’S UNOFFICIAL TALLY

MANILA, May 9 (Reuters) – Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday retained his wide lead in the tally of votes in the Philippines presidential election with 61% of eligible ballots counted, unofficial data from the poll body showed.

Marcos had 20 million votes, more than double the 9.49 million of rival Leni Robredo, according to a live unofficial count by the poll body.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty)

((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8841 8914;))

Corrects alert that was attached to May 9 story to state that vote tally was with 46.93% of votes counted, not out of 46.93 million votes; other alerts in the series are repeated without changes

CORRECTED – PHILIPPINES’ MARCOS HAS 15.34 MLN VOTES WITH 46.93% OF VOTES COUNTED (NOT OUT OF 46.93 MLN VOTES) – UNOFFICIAL TALLY BY POLL BODY

UNOFFICIAL VOTE COUNT SHOWS FERDINAND MARCOS JR IN EARLY LEAD IN PHILIPPINES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

UNOFFICIAL VOTE COUNT SHOWS SARA DUTERTE-CARPIO IN EARLY LEAD IN PHILIPPINES’ VICE-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

MARCOS HAD 958,219 VOTES, MORE THAN DOUBLE VERSUS RIVAL ROBREDO – POLL BODY COUNT

FERDINAND MARCOS JR LEADS IN PHILIPPINES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AT 36.99% OF VOTES COUNTED

MARCOS JR HAD 12 MLN VOTES VS LENI ROBREDO’S 5.76 MLN VOTES WITH 36.99% OF VOTES COUNTED – POLL BODY

PHILIPPINES’ MARCOS JR KEEPS WIDE LEAD AT 46.93% OF VOTES COUNTED – UNOFFICIAL POLL BODY DATA

MANILA, May 9 (Reuters) – An unofficial vote count on Monday in the Philippines presidential election showed Ferdinand Marcos Jr taking an early lead.

Based on 3.2% of election returns, Marcos had 958,219 votes, followed by Leni Robredo at 406,608, according to the election body. It also showed Marcos’s running mate Sara Duterte-Carpio with a big early lead in the vice presidential contest.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Martin Petty)

((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8841 8914;))

By Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema

MANILA, May 10 (Reuters) – The Philippines woke to a new but familiar political dawn on Tuesday, after an election triumph by Ferdinand Marcos Jr paved the way for a once unimaginable return to the country’s highest office for its most notorious political dynasty.

Marcos, better known as “Bongbong”, trounced bitter rival Leni Robredo to become the first candidate in recent history to win a Philippines presidential election majority, marking a stunning comeback by the son and namesake of an ousted dictator that has been decades in the making. nL2N2X00JH

Marcos fled into exile in Hawaii with his family during a 1986 “people power” uprising that ended his father’s autocratic 20-year rule, and has served in congress and the senate since his return to the Philippines in 1991.

Marcos’s runaway victory in Monday’s election looked certain when early results of an unofficial vote poured in and with 95% of the eligible ballots counted, he had more than 30 million votes, double that of Robredo.

An official result is expected around the end of the month.

Marcos refused to celebrate, offering instead what he called a statement of gratitude.

“There are thousands of you out there, volunteers, parallel groups, political leaders that have cast their lot with us because of our belief in our message of unity,” he said, standing beside a national flag, in remarks streamed on Facebook.

“Any endeavour as large as this does not involve one person, it involves very, very many people working in very, very many different ways.”

Though Marcos, 64, campaigned on a platform of unity, political analysts say his presidency is unlikely to foster that, despite the huge margin of victory.

Many among the millions of Robredo voters are angered by what they see as a brazen attempt by the disgraced former first family to use its mastery of social media to reinvent historical narratives of its time in power.

Thousands of opponents of Marcos senior suffered persecution during a brutal 1972-1981 era of martial law, and the family name became synonymous with plunder, cronyism and extravagant living, with billions of dollars of state wealth disappearing.

The Marcos family has denied wrongdoing and many of its supporters, bloggers and social media influencers say historical accounts are distorted.

‘DETESTABLE IMAGE’

Human rights group Karapatan called on Filipinos to reject the new Marcos presidency, which it said was built on lies and disinformation “to deodorize the Marcoses’ detestable image”.

“Marcos Jr has not publicly acknowledged the crimes of his father and his family’s role, as direct beneficiaries,” it said in a statement.

“Marcos Jr continues to spit on the graves and sufferings endured by all the Marcos martial law victims by feigning ignorance on the numerous documented atrocities.”

Marcos, who shied away from debates and interviews during the campaign, recently praised his father as a genius and a statesman but has also been irked by questions about the martial law era.

As the vote count showed the extent of the Marcos win, Robredo told her supporters to continue their fight for truth until the next election.

“It took time to build the structures of lies. We have time and opportunity to fight and dismantle these,” she said.

Marcos gave few clues on the campaign trail of what his policy agenda would look like, but is widely expected to closely follow outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who targeted big infrastructure works, close ties with China and strong growth. Duterte’s tough leadership style won him big support.

Aries Arugay, a political science professor, said Marcos has much to do to prove he is sincere about unity.

“This polarization will happen regardless,” he said.

“Under a Marcos presidency, perhaps it will become more pernicious because I don’t think the unity slogan will be implemented, meaning reaching out to the other side.”

“It will be a tough sell because it is not credible.”

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Davies)

((martin.petty@tr.com; +66896070413))

Adds analyst comments

May 10 (Reuters) – Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the Philippines dictator deposed in a 1986 popular uprising, won a presidential election by a huge margin on Monday, according to unofficial results, marking a stunning comeback for the country’s most famous political dynasty. nL2N2X00JH

Following is reaction to his victory.

PETER MUMFORD, EURASIA GROUP PRACTICE HEAD, SOUTH & SOUTHEAST ASIA, SINGAPORE

“Marcos’s apparent landslide electoral victory is not a guarantee that he will be a popular and/or effective leader, but it gets his presidency off to a strong start. In particular, it will create a strong initial gravitational pull on members of Congress …. and will mean more technocrats/economists will be willing to serve in his cabinet.”

“One of the key watchpoints under his administration will be whether corruption and cronyism – already notable risks in the Philippines – worsen. It will be interesting to watch whether he recognises these concerns and signals/takes action in the coming weeks to reassure foreign investors, or if he mostly appoints close family and other personal connections to key positions, reaffirming investors’ worries.”

ALEX HOLMES, EMERGING ASIA ECONOMIST, CAPITAL ECONOMICS

“The victory puts Marcos in a powerful position. Given his family background and his chequered political career to date, there are concerns among investors that his election will fuel corruption, nepotism and poor governance.”

“Marcos gave away few policy details on the campaign trail. But one thing he is keen to do is resume the ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure programme of President Duterte, which he hopes to ‘expand and improve’. There is little doubt that the Philippines would benefit from upgrading its infrastructure, which is rated as among the worst in Asia.”

“The incoming president is also keen to pursue closer ties with China. Low interest rate loans from China could help limit the fiscal impact of the infrastructure push.

“Courting China would likely involve a trade-off in relations with the Philippines’ traditional ally, the U.S. There seems little economic rationale for turning away from a country that accounts for a greater share of export demand than China, has invested heavily in the large business process outsourcing sector and is a huge source of remittances.”

TEMARIO RIVERA, FORMER POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

“Marcos Jr’s victory signals the worst ascendancy and concentration of dynastic political power in the country’s political history. But (Vice President Leni) Robredo’s campaign has also birthed an opposition force which could challenge the impunities of the ruling regime if adequately led by progressive leaders who can inspire and move with the people.”

GREG POLING, SENIOR FELLOW AND DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAMME, CENTRE FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, WASHINGTON

“He will soon be the duly elected president. But 2022 is not 1972. This is not the end of Philippine democracy, though it may accelerate its decay.”

“The United States would be better served by engagement rather than criticism of the democratic headwinds buffeting the Philippines.”

“Marcos is a policy cipher. He has avoided presidential debates, shunned interviews, and has been silent on most issues. He has, however, been clear that he would like to take another crack at improving ties with Beijing.”

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie and Ed Davies)

((martin.petty@tr.com; +66896070413))