LIVE UPDATES: Bongbong Marcos’ plans for 2022 Philippine elections

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, will run for president in 2022 – in a move that aims to complete the family’s return to power 35 years after they were ousted by a civilian-backed military revolt and forced to flee the country.

 “I am today announcing my intention to run for the presidency of the Philippines. I will bring that form of unifying leadership in our country,” he said on Tuesday, October 5.

The announcement ended months of speculations on Marcos’ plan, which included teaming up with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte. He earlier said he had been in “many, many talks” with different quarters to “make alliances” and “find a consensus.”

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Could today be the day that Bongbong Marcos announces his potential presidential run?

He started Tuesday, October 5, taking oath as a new member and chairman of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP). He switched from the longtime party Nacionalista Party of the Villars to lead the PFP, which had already nominated him as their standard-bearer for 2022.

In the afternoon, he cut the ribbon to a swanky new headquarters with the tarpaulin: Bongbong Marcos 2022. 

The Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), founded by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, on Friday, September 24, nominated his son Bongbong to be its standard-bearer in the May 2022 presidential race.

If he accepts, this would be Bongbong Marcos’ first presidential bid as he tries to complete his journey of following in his father’s footsteps. Like his father, Bongbong had been congressman and senator.

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The Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), a party founded by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, will hold a national convention in Binangonan, Rizal on Friday, September 24, to nominate former senator Bongbong Marcos as the party’s presidential bet.

Larry Gadon confirmed this to reporters days ahead of the event. While KBL was Marcos’ party in his early political years, he has largely allied with the Nacionalista Party (NP).

Asked by Radyo Palawan on Friday morning to comment on KBL’s national convention, Marcos said: “Tingnan natin kung ano ang kanilang gagawin.” (Let’s see what they will do.)

Marcos has been in government for 28 years, starting in 1980 when he became vice governor of Ilocos Norte at age 23. He won as governor and representative of Ilocos Norte before serving as senator for one term from 2010 to 2016.

Marcos lost to Leni Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential elections. His electoral protest against Robredo was unanimously junked by the Supreme Court in February 2021, but Marcos has filed a motion for reconsideration still pending before the High Court.

Brittany Kaiser, former employee turned whistleblower of the controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica, told Rappler in July 2020 that Bongbong had asked them to rebrand the Marcos name. Marcos has denied this.

An investigation by Rappler in November 2019 showed a massive disinformation network – aided by social media influencers – as part of a systematic campaign to indeed rebrand the Marcos name and help propel them to Malacañang.

The most definitive statement Bongbong Marcos has made so far is that “the presidency is not taken off the table by any means.”

His sister Imee had also floated the possibility of a Bongbong-Sara Duterte tandem, after the siblings visited presidential daughter Sara Duterte in Davao City in May.

Marcos said that the “combination” was not discussed in that meeting in Davao City, but that he and Sara agreed to “just always be in touch,” as he told the National Press Club (NPC) on August 6.

In that same NPC forum, when asked if he is willing to run against a possible tandem of Senator Bong Go and President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos said he didn’t want to deal with a hypothetical question because he will be “talking to them also and ask them what their plans are.”