Bongbong Marcos
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Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (UK: , US: , Tagalog: [ˈmaɾkɔs]; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child and only son of 10th president Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos. In 1980, Marcos was elected vice governor of Ilocos Norte, running unopposed with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of his father, who was ruling the Philippines under martial law at the time. He then became governor in 1983, holding that office until his family was ousted from power by the People Power Revolution and fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986. After the death of his father in 1989, President Corazon Aquino allowed his family to return to the Philippines to face various charges; in October 1991, he became the first Marcos to return since the revolution. Marcos and his mother, Imelda, are currently facing arrest in the United States for defying a court order to pay US$353 million (₱17,385,250,000 in 2024) in restitution to human rights abuse victims during his father's dictatorship. However, as long as he is president, he can enter the United States due to diplomatic immunity. Marcos was elected as the representative of Ilocos Norte's second district, serving from 1992 to 1995. He was elected governor again in 1998. After nine years, he returned to his previous position as representative from 2007 to 2010, before entering the Senate of the Philippines under the Nacionalista Party for a single term from 2010 to 2016. Marcos unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2016 election, narrowly losing to Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo. Marcos contested the result at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but his electoral protest was unanimously dismissed in 2021 after the pilot recount resulted in Robredo widening her lead by 15,093 additional votes. Marcos ran for president in the 2022 election under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, which he won by a landslide with nearly 59% of the vote. During his campaign, he refrained from participating in presidential debates. Although President Rodrigo Duterte had expressed criticisms of Marcos as a "weak leader", Duterte's daughter Sara ran as Marcos' running mate and won a majority of the votes, with their UniTeam coalition being credited for their resounding electoral success. His win was the largest since 1981, when his father won 88% of the votes due to a boycott by the opposition. His presidential campaign received criticism from fact-checkers and disinformation scholars for being driven by historical negationism aimed at rehabilitating the Marcos brand and smearing his rivals. As president, Marcos concurrently served as the Secretary of Agriculture in his initial 16 months. He continued the Build! Build! Build! infrastructure program of President Duterte through his own program called "Build Better More". Foreign policy has been characterized by efforts to reestablish closer ties with the United States, an abrupt shift from the China-oriented policies of the Duterte administration. Amidst China's increased territorial encroachment in the maritime area within the West Philippine Sea that has lead to standoffs with Filipino vessels, Marcos has repeatedly affirmed Philippine jurisdiction over the area, stating in 2023 that "This country will not lose an inch of its territory". In 2024, Marcos banned Philippine offshore gaming operators that had proliferated under the previous administration, while Vice President Sara Duterte resigned from his cabinet amidst a growing rift in the Marcos and Duterte political families. The year 2025 was marked by controversy over the national budget, the impeachment of Vice President Duterte, the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte, and a massive infrastructure corruption scandal he had initially publicized and denounced.