Ferdinand Marcos Jr to be sworn in as Philippines president

 

 Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the Philippines’s late dictator, is set to be sworn in as the country’s new president.
Marcos Jr’s inauguration on Thursday marks a stunning political comeback for one of Asia’s most famous political dynasties, 36 years after it was toppled in a popular uprising.
Known as “Bongbong”, Marcos Jr, 64, won a rare landslide victory in last month’s presidential election, helped by what critics have said was a years-long campaign to whitewash the his family’s image.
He succeeds Rodrigo Duterte, who gained international notoriety for his deadly drug war and has threatened to kill suspected dealers after he leaves office.

Marcos Jr will take the oath at midday (0400 GMT) in a public ceremony at the National Museum in Manila in front of hundreds of local and foreign dignitaries and journalists.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan and United States Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, are among foreign dignitaries attending the noontime ceremony. The event will be “solemn and simple”, his transition team said, reflecting difficult times brought by COVID-19.
Activists and survivors of the martial law-era under his father plan protests timed to Marcos Jr’s inauguration, while more than 15,000 police, soldiers and coast guard personnel have been deployed across the capital for security. The elder Marcos ruled the Philippines for two decades from 1965, almost half of it under martial law, helping him to extend his grip on power until his overthrow and his family’s retreat into exile during the 1986 “people power” revolution. Thousands of Marcos opponents were jailed, killed or disappeared during his rule, and the family name became synonymous with cronyism, extravagance and the disappearance of billions of dollars from state coffers. The Marcos family has rejected accusations of embezzlement.
Marcos Jr, a former senator and congressman, campaigned on the slogan “together, we shall rise again”, invoking nostalgia for his father’s rule, which his family and supporters have portrayed as a golden age for the Philippines, while ignoring the corruption and rights abuses of the patriarch’s 20-year rule.
Crucial to Marcos Jr’s success was also an alliance with Duterte’s daughter, Sara, who secured the vice presidential post with more votes than him, and the backing of rival dynasties.