Bongbong Marcos says family’s ‘survival’ prompted entry into politics; their exile, ‘dark days’ for PH
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday (Manila time) said the “survival” of his family was a motivation for his participation in Philippine politics.
During a dialogue with World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende in Davos, Switzerland, Marcos also described their exile as “dark days” for the family and even the country.
READ: The Marcoses’ expenses in exile
According to him, he initially did not want to go into politics as he had witnessed the “difficult” life in politics including the “sacrifices” that his father, the late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., had to make “to get to do a good job.”
“I was determined not to go into politics. I said, why would I go into politics? My father has done everything in politics and the life [in politics] is difficult and I could see the sacrifices that they had to make, that he had to make to get to do a good job and I said, maybe that’s not what I’m meant to be doing,” Marcos said.
But, he said, there was a need “to defend ourselves politically,” thus, he ran for congressman in Ilocos Norte after returning to the Philippines from exile in the United States.
“After we came back from the United States, after exile, when we were first allowed to come back, the political issue was Marcos,” he said.
“And for us, we, for us to defend ourselves politically, somebody had to enter politics and be in the political arena. So that at least, not only the legacy of my father but even our own survival required that somebody go into politics,” Marcos added.
After his stint in Congress in 1992, Marcos became a governor of Ilocos Norte in 1998 and then returned to the House of Representatives in 2007.
In 2010, he was elected as senator. He rain for vice president in 2016 but lost to former Vice President Leni Robredo. He became president in 2022.
READ: It’s all over; Marcos flees!
Marcos continued: “We were in exile for six years so we weren’t sure if we were coming back at all, physically coming back. My father never made it back. He died in Hawaii. So that was a very trying time, those were dark days for the family and I dare say even for the country.”
The Marcos family was exiled to Hawaii in the United States after Marcos Sr. was expelled from power during the bloodless Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986. The late dictator died on September 28, 1989.
READ: Marcos Jr. thanks Filipinos, Hawaiians for generosity after family’s 1986 exile
