Presidential Frontrunner Bongbong Marcos: Where Does He Stand on Critical National Issues?

This article is part of The Beat Asia’s coverage of the Philippines’ 2022 elections. To see the rest of our elections-related stories, click here.

Former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is among the 10 official candidates gunning for the highest position in the country in the May polls.

He is the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose iron-fist rule plunged the entire Philippines under martial law from 1972 until 1986, when he was finally overthrown. Considered as one of the darkest chapters in Philippine history, martial law under Marcos saw the arrest, torture, deaths, and disappearances of thousands of activists and critics. Martial Law Museum has reported that poverty and the prices of goods increased during this period, while wages for workers decreased. External debt also rose to US$28.26 billion in 1986, from US$0.36 billion in 1961.

No stranger to controversy, Marcos Jr.'s lead-up to the new year was met with more controversy in the form of disqualification petitions from various groups, one of which pertaining to his 1995 conviction for failure to file income tax returns. Despite these, however, Marcos Jr. has consistently topped various presidential surveys, outstripping his rivals to become the most popular presidential candidate of the Philippines.

As the frontrunner in the presidential race, here are Bongbong Marcos’ takes on the country's key national issues.

Economy

Marcos has big plans to reboot the economy under his presidency, one of which is by focusing on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). He also plans to continue incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte's "Build Build Build" infrastructure program.

In a Go Negosyo "Kandidatalks" series on Dec. 1, 2021 as reported by the Manila Bulletin on Dec. 3, he spoke about designating aid to MSMEs, specifically for LGUs to allocate funds from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to help them in their business plans.

"People need jobs, and the biggest bang for our buck are the MSMEs," Marcos said. "The effect of any effort we have to help MSMEs will be felt immediately."

As for agricultural productivity, Marcos believes that the approach should not just stop at planting rice, and should also include research and development, resilient varieties, supporting farmers in their loans, access to agricultural products, as well as mechanizing farming.

COVID-19 Response

For his COVID-19 response and recovery plans, Marcos said he will rally for higher budget for healthcare and medical research. Dubbed the "Tawid-Covid, Beyond Covid" program, it will focus on bettering the work conditions of frontliners, including increased salaries and benefits, as per a Rappler report on Nov. 3, 2021.

In a statement on Nov. 1, Marcos said medical research in the country "needs more support to fight [the] pandemic." He also pointed out the need to strengthen the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), the country's main COVID-19 laboratory, saying it was created in the 1980s during his father's governance. His sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, has also pushed this claim in the past, citing the RITM was built by her father through Executive Order No. 674 in 1981.

Vera Files, however, has since fact-checked this claim by the Marcos siblings as “lies,” as the RITM was already being constructed even before the EO was issued by then President Marcos.

West Philippine Sea

In regard to the country's territorial dispute with China involving the West Philippine Sea, Marcos has parroted the sentiments of Duterte. The outgoing president has been heavily criticized for his stance on the West Philippine Sea, believing that asserting the country's rights to the territory would lead to war with China, thus setting aside the arbitral ruling in 2016 that rejected China's claims in the South China Sea.

In an online news forum on Sept. 24, as reported by INQUIRER.net on the same day, Marcos said the policy of engagement of the Duterte government, although criticized, "is the right way to go."

He reiterated this in his 2022 presidential one-on-one interview with Boy Abunda on Jan. 25, saying “[I]t is a completely ludicrous assertion that going to war with China is going to be advantageous to the Philippines, even to China” and added that military capability-wise, the Philippines has no chance against the superpower.

He also told Abunda that a bilateral agreement with the superpower is all we are left with and “we must continue to engage China.”

Poverty

When it comes to poverty, Marcos believes the government should give special attention to the nation's poorest. In excerpts of a speech delivered on July 29, 2018, as published on BizNewsAsia on Oct. 2, 2021, Marcos said, "[B]usiness should take the lead in nation-building, in poverty reduction, in developing our shared future."

He and running mate Sara Duterte-Carpio also vowed to address the problem of malnutrition should they win in the 2022 elections. In a statement on Nov. 28, as reported by The Manila Times on Nov. 29, the duo said malnutrition resulted from alarming poverty and was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[D]apat talagang paigtingin ng ating gobyerno ang kampanya laban dito (the government should fortify its campaign efforts against malnutrition)," Marcos and Duterte-Carpio said. "Malnutrition is a consequence of persistence hunger and hunger a consequence of extreme poverty."

Corruption

As for corruption, it is something Marcos has vowed to put a stop to, banking on his long experience in public service.

"Nauunawaan ko dahil nakikita ko ang korapsyon na nangyayari, nakikita ko kung paano ginagawa," he said in a panel interview by dzRH, as reported by GMA News on Jan. 25. "Kaya siguro mas nakakaunawa ako kung paano ayusin ang problema at bigyan ng solusyon ang problema."

He also said he would be willing to give government positions to his family if they are the best in a particular field.

Political Dynasty

What is Marcos' stand on political dynasties? Despite being a product of it, Marcos said in an Inquirer interview back in April 2016 that his stand is "in consonance with the Constitution, and it says we should pass an anti-dynasty bill."

He said political dynasties were the product of a "natural evolution," that there were good and bad ones, and people should make judgments on an individual basis.

It’s known that Marcos' eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, is running for a congressional post of Ilocos Norte’s first district in the May polls. His nephew, Matthew Manotoc Marcos, is seeking reelection as Ilocos Norte governor. Matthew is the youngest son of Imee, who won a senatorial seat in 2019 after holding key local positions in Ilocos Norte in prior years.

Insurgency

Marcos has expressed his support to counter insurgency in the country and praised the performance of the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

He promised to give more funds to NTF-ELCAC's Barangay Development Program (BPD), which is directed to sustainably rehabilitate and develop 822 barangays that were supposedly once guerrilla fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army - National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

"Kung successful ‘yung programa eh doon tayo maglagay ng pondo," he said. "Ipagpatuloy natin ‘yung kanilang ginagawa." (If the program is successful then we should fund it. We should continue its initiatives).

Death Penalty

Marcos also supports the death penalty, particularly for those involved in drug trafficking. In Jan. 21, 2016, he took to Twitter to answer the very question, tweeting, "Kung sa drug lord, approve."

He expounded on this in February 2016, saying that drug dealers are destroying the future of children by preying on them.

"Because of the scale of damage they inflict [to society], I think they deserve the death penalty," he said.

Same-Sex Marriage

Marcos has made it clear back in 2016 that he has no right to judge the LGBTQ+ community. In a Senate press release on Feb. 17, he said he supported the position of Pope Francis regarding the community.

As for same-sex marriage, he said, "Who am I to judge? Nasa tao yan, nasa lugar. Halimbawa kung magkakaroon tayo ng batas eh kung sang-ayon ang taumbayan, anong sinasabi? Vox populi, vox dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God."

Divorce

It is only in the Philippines and the Vatican City where there is still no divorce. Marcos' disapproval of it couldn't get any simpler and more personal.

"I love my wife," he said back in April 2016 as per a Rappler report. "I do not want to divorce her."

Marcos also backed abortion for very severe cases, like rape and incest. In his presidential interview with Abunda on Jan. 25, he said that rape victims should have the choice to abort or not, as well as those who are victims of incest, wherein the mother is usually quite young, or just not emotionally or mentally capable to have a child.

"The bottom line is when it comes to the subject of abortion it is a woman's decision because it is her body," he told Abunda.

Environmental Issues

As for environmental issues, mainly mining, Marcos admitted that it is controversial indeed, but added it should be looked at as a valuable source of revenue for the government.

He also said how there are sufficient regulations and monitoring in place but are just not being followed.

"[I]f we can take care of making sure that the environmental impact is in accordance with the law, then I think we can carefully exploit the natural resources to help the recovery of our economy," he told Abunda.

As for open-pit mining, Marcos expressed his wariness and believes it should be studied more.

Fake News

Marcos has been vocal about the fight against fake news, even rallying his supporters on social media to avoid being the source of misinformation and panic.

He had also claimed in a forum back in October 2017 that he and his family have been victims of fake news themselves for decades.

"We have suffered from the lies of those fake news for 30 years," he was quoted as saying, as per a report by PhilStar on Oct. 5. "There are lots of [historical] revisions occurring. We want to fix that. It's not a version, it's the truth..."

Despite this, however, it seems Marcos himself has been found spouting false claims. In fact, Rappler published a list of all the false claims he made about martial law during his viral "Toni Talks" interview with Toni Gonzaga back in September 2021.