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Updates with comment from Marcos spokesperson

By Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA, May 6 (Reuters) – Street vendor Nellie Baraquio will cast a ballot in a presidential election in the Philippines for the first time on Monday, and the campaign sticker on her worn-out ice box leaves little doubt about who is getting her vote.

The 38-year-old believes the red-shirted man smiling in the sticker, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, is the best bet to lead her nation, despite his late father and namesake having presided over what critics say was the darkest chapter in the country’s recent history.

Baraquio, who sells cigarettes, snacks and soft drinks on a sidewalk in the capital Manila, had no interest in voting in earlier elections. This time, she says she is lured by the prospect of a better economy under Marcos, who has spoken of his father’s 20-year rule as a “golden age” of development.

“This could be the destiny of the Philippines. I will vote for the first time because of Marcos,” said Baraquio, who like many Filipinos, is struggling with high food and utilities costs.

“I can work for myself and not rely on the government. But I want prices to go down,” Baraquio said. “I heard during their (Marcos) time, life in the Philippines was comfortable.”

The country did enjoy solid economic growth under Marcos Snr, although it was fuelled by huge debt and eventually triggered an economic and social crisis, as well as growing inequality.

Fact-checking organisation VERA Files said in a December report that Marcos Jr was the “top beneficiary” of disinformation online to spruce up his image while discrediting rivals.

The 64-year-old denies fuelling disinformation.

“We are the victims of disinformation,” said Marcos spokesperson Vic Rodriguez. “We just want to close this campaign on a high note.”

Recent polls show Marcos leading by more than 30 points over his closest rival, Leni Robredo, who narrowly beat him in the 2016 vice presidential contest.

Marcos is running with Sara Duterte-Carpio, the popular daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte-Carpio is leading opinion polls on the vice-presidential race and could be key to a Marcos victory if she succeeds in rallying her supporters behind him.

CONTRASTING NARRATIVES

Construction worker Patrick Uy is having a tough time making ends meet for him and his six children with a $10 daily wage.

He too is hoping a vote for Marcos could change that.

“I hope Marcos lowers the prices of electricity, gasoline and rice,” said the 49-year-old. “I’m excited to see him win.”

Under the elder Marcos’s rule, thousands of opponents were beaten, tortured, disappeared or were killed, Amnesty International said, while billions of dollars went missing from state coffers, according to a government agency created to recover the ill-gotten wealth.

Marcos and his family have often said that their vast fortune was legitimately obtained. nL3N2WU0SN

Working in Marcos’s favour this time, political observers say, is the demographic profile of this year’s voters, with 56% aged 18 to 41, and no direct memory of the Marcos dictatorship and its overthrow in a 1986 “people power” uprising.

Many supporters like Baraquio and Uy believe historical narratives of corruption, cronyism and economic decay of the Marcos era were concocted by political rivals.

“I do not believe those. At the time of Marcos, the Philippines had no debt. Now, we are deep in debt,” Uy said.

“They say Marcos is a thief. They have been rich long ago, they have been in service for a long time already.”

(Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty and Lincoln Feast.)

((karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com; +632 841-8938))

By Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA, May 6 (Reuters) – Street vendor Nellie Baraquio will cast a ballot in a presidential election in the Philippines for the first time on Monday, and the campaign sticker on her worn-out ice box leaves little doubt about who is getting her vote.

The 38-year-old believes the red-shirted man smiling in the sticker, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, is the best bet to lead her nation, despite his late father and namesake having presided over what critics say was the darkest chapter in the country’s recent history.

Baraquio, who sells cigarettes, snacks and soft drinks on a sidewalk in the capital Manila, had no interest in voting in earlier elections. This time, she says she is lured by the prospect of a better economy under Marcos, who has spoken of his father’s 20-year rule as a “golden age” of development.

“This could be the destiny of the Philippines. I will vote for the first time because of Marcos,” said Baraquio, who like many Filipinos, is struggling with high food and utilities costs.

“I can work for myself and not rely on the government. But I want prices to go down,” Baraquio said. “I heard during their (Marcos) time, life in the Philippines was comfortable.”

The country did enjoy solid economic growth under Marcos Snr, although it was fuelled by huge debt and eventually triggered an economic and social crisis, as well as growing inequality.

Fact-checking organisation VERA Files said in a December report that Marcos Jr was the “top beneficiary” of disinformation online to spruce up his image while discrediting rivals.

The 64-year-old, who denies fuelling disinformation, looks poised to win the presidency. Recent polls show him leading by more than 30 points over his closest rival, Leni Robredo, who narrowly beat him in the 2016 vice presidential contest.

Marcos is running with Sara Duterte-Carpio, the popular daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte-Carpio is leading opinion polls on the vice-presidential race and could be key to a Marcos victory if she succeeds in rallying her supporters behind him.

CONTRASTING NARRATIVES

Construction worker Patrick Uy is having a tough time making ends meet for him and his six children with a $10 daily wage.

He too is hoping a vote for Marcos could change that.

“I hope Marcos lowers the prices of electricity, gasoline and rice,” said the 49-year-old. “I’m excited to see him win.”

Under the elder Marcos’s rule, thousands of opponents were beaten, tortured, disappeared or were killed, Amnesty International said, while billions of dollars went missing from state coffers, according to a government agency created to recover the ill-gotten wealth.

Marcos and his family have often said that their vast fortune was legitimately obtained. nL3N2WU0SN

Working in Marcos’s favour this time, political observers say, is the demographic profile of this year’s voters, with 56% aged 18 to 41, and no direct memory of the Marcos dictatorship and its overthrow in a 1986 “people power” uprising.

Many supporters like Baraquio and Uy believe historical narratives of corruption, cronyism and economic decay of the Marcos era were concocted by political rivals.

“I do not believe those. At the time of Marcos, the Philippines had no debt. Now, we are deep in debt,” Uy said.

“They say Marcos is a thief. They have been rich long ago, they have been in service for a long time already.”

(Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty and Lincoln Feast.)

((karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com; +632 841-8938))

Repeats to widen distribution

By Karen Lema

MANILA, May 5 (Reuters) – Former political prisoner Cristina Bawagan still has the dress she wore the day she was arrested, tortured and sexually abused by soldiers during the late Philippines’ dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s brutal era of martial law.

Bawagan fears the horrors of Marcos’s rule would be diminished if his namesake son wins the presidency in next week’s election, a victory that would cap a three-decade political fightback for a family driven out in a 1986 “people power” uprising. nL3N2WV114

Also known as “Bongbong”, Marcos Jr. has benefited from what some political analysts describe as a decades-long public relations effort to alter perceptions of his family, accused of living lavishly at the helm of one of Asia’s most notorious kleptocracies. nL1N2UI09D

Rivals of the family say the presidential run is an attempt to rewrite history, and change a narrative of corruption and authoritarianism associated with his father’s era.

“This election is not just a fight for elected positions. It is also a fight against disinformation, fake news, and historical revisionism,” Leni Robredo, Marcos’s main rival in the presidential race, told supporters in March.

TSEK.PH, a fact-checking initiative for the May 9 vote, told Reuters last month it has debunked scores of martial law-related disinformation it says were used to rehabilitate, erase or burnish the discreditable record of Marcos Snr.

Marcos Jr.’s camp did not reply to written requests for comment from Reuters on Bawagan’s story.

Marcos Jr., who last week called his late father a “political genius”, has previously denied claims of spreading misinformation and his spokesperson has said Marcos does not engage in negative campaigning. nL3N2WO1JV

Bawagan, 67, said martial law victims like her needed to share their stories to counter the portrayal of the elder Marcos’s regime as a peaceful, golden age for the Southeast Asian country.

“It is very important they see primary evidence that it really happened,” said Bawagan while showing the printed dress which had a tear below the neckline where her torturer passed a blade across her chest and fondled her breasts.

THOUSANDS IMPRISONED, KILLED

The elder Marcos ruled for two decades from 1965, almost half of it under martial law.

During that time, 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed, according to figures from Amnesty International – figures which Marcos Jr. questioned in a January interview. nL4N2U43C0

Bawagan, an activist, was arrested on May 27, 1981 by soldiers in the province of Nueva Ecija for alleged subversion and brought to a “safehouse” where she was beaten as they tried to extract a confession from her.

“I would receive slaps on my face every time they were not satisfied with my answers and that was all the time,” Bawagan said. “They hit strongly at my thighs and clapped my ears. They tore my duster (dress) and fondled my breasts.”

“The hardest thing was when they put an object in my vagina. That was the worst part of it and all throughout I was screaming. No one seemed to hear,” said Bawagan, a mother of two.

‘NO ARRESTS’

In a conversation with Marcos Jr. that appeared on YouTube in 2018, Juan Ponce Enrile, who served as the late dictator’s defence minister, said not one person was arrested for their political and religious views, or for criticising the elder Marcos.

However, more than 11,000 victims of state brutality during martial law later received reparations using millions from Marcos’s Swiss bank deposits, part of billions the family siphoned off from the country’s coffers and recovered by the Philippine government. nL4N2UZ52I
Among them was Felix Dalisay, who was detained for 17 months from August 1973 after he was beaten and tortured by soldiers trying to force him to inform on other activists, causing him to suffer hearing loss.

“They kicked me even before I boarded the military jeep so I fell and hit my face on the ground,” Dalisay said, showing a scar on his right eye as he recounted the day he was arrested.

When they reached the military headquarters, Dalisay said he was brought to an interrogation room, where soldiers repeatedly clapped his ears, kicked and hit him, sometimes with a butt of a rifle, during questioning.

“They started by inserting bullets used in a .45 calibre gun between my fingers and they would squeeze my hand. That really hurt. If they were not satisfied with my answers, they would hit me,” Dalisay pointing to different parts of his body.

The return of a Marcos to the country’s seat of power is unthinkable for Dalisay, who turned 70 this month.

“Our blood is boiling at that thought,” said Dalisay. “Marcos Sr declared martial law then they will say nobody was arrested, and tortured? We are here speaking while we are still alive.”

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

((karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com; +632 841-8938;))