Rappler.com-July 1
On the steps of the building where, as a young child, he once waited for his father so they could go home together, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. took his oath at noon of June 30, 2022 as the 17th president of the Republic. The reference – of him being the late president Ferdinand E. Marcos’ only son – was rarely made in the 2022 campaign, even as he and his campaign team evoked the image of the late strongman and made references to a once glorious past. But when he spoke for the first time as chief executive, Marcos Jr. no longer held back in edifying the late dictator. “I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence, in a land of people with the greatest potential for achievement; and yet they were poor. But he got it done; sometimes with the needed support; sometimes without. So will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me,” said Marcos, drawing applause from an audience of foreign and local officials, select guests, and only a sliver of the 31 million who voted him President. President Marcos has promised that we, the Filipino people, “will build [the economy] back better” and emphasized the following priorities: agriculture, which he himself will lead; trade policy and food sufficiency; energy supply; education; health crisis preparedness, overseas workers’ protection, infrastructure, tourism, and the climate crisis. “And if you ask me why I am so confident of the future, I will answer you simply, that I have 110 million reasons to start with. Such is my faith in the Filipino,” he added. Marcos has proven that a network of disinformation in one’s favor, tactical alliances, decades-long rehabilitation of reputation, and continuity wrapped with a promise of unity are more than enough to win a Philippine election. But will all these suffice to govern? Read more at: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/marcos-jr-puts-faith-filipino-inauguration-speech/
