[ANALYSIS] You marched vs the old Marcos and Duterte. How are you these days?

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You could not have possibly marched against the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and have fixed feelings toward his son who is now president. If you’re being honest with yourself, you’re at the very least conflicted — especially if you’ve suffered under the Duterte government. 

You probably even like Marcos Jr., except you only whisper this to your trusted friends who will not judge you. Or his family continues to rankle you, except there’s the other family from the South that rankles you more.

We were a generation that lost sleep over Marcos in 2022. We had dreaded what he’d do as president. We imagined a well-oiled political machine that would pack the Cabinet with cronies, harass journalists to favor the propagandist vloggers, and change people and policies with cold-hearted efficiency.

The first Marcos team that descended on Malacañang fumbled and tumbled. It was amateur hour, which eventually led to the resignation of Vic Rodriguez as executive secretary barely three months after he assumed the post, and the sacking of then-press and communications chief Trixie Angeles. The longtime Marcos loyalist Zenaida Angping also quit her job as head of the Presidential Management Staff after a scandal involving her husband during Marcos’ state visit to Thailand. 

And then Marcos opened 2023 with a bang, as he unceremoniously removed General Bartolome Bacarro as armed forces chief of staff and replaced him with the general whom Bacarro had already replaced — a one-for-the-books in the military. 

For all of this, the President’s unequivocal pivot to the West and his staunch stand against Chinese incursions into Philippine territory pleased the defense-military establishment. 

Beyond slash and burn

The trauma of many Filipinos from Duterte somehow made Marcos’ initial fumbles bearable — more so in 2024, when the sins of the Dutertes continued to haunt the former first family and distract us from the troubles of the day.

In the past 12 months, we were witness to the unboxing of the Duterte damage: from his brutal drug war, to the corruption of the police force, to the unfiltered entry of illegal businesses, to his unconditional love for China. His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, was unmasked for her disregard of ethics, her uber sense of entitlement, and her crass and crude ways.

Did these grisly reminders make us put up with Marcos and come to terms with him, however unhappy or dissatisfied we might have been? Did these make us settle for purgatory that is Marcos, coming as we did from hell that was Duterte? 

Perhaps.

But to lead and govern, Marcos needs to do more than slash and burn his path to complete redemption by 2028. That his latest net satisfaction ratings are as bad as the Vice President’s should alarm him. His numbers dropped in all areas except Balance Luzon.

In June, Marcos would be entering the last half of his six-year term bedeviled by the same problems that visit every Philippine president on their third year in office, when the cut-him-some-slack period ends. (READ: President Aquino’s reality check)

By then his allies in the Senate and the House would have won the midterms. He would have defanged Ms. Duterte for good and bury her chances of becoming president in 2028. He would have thrown Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court.

Or not.

The old strongman Marcos that the Boomer and X generations knew was a take-charge president — decisive when it mattered, scheming when threatened, charming when needed, menacing when called for.

In contrast, his only son navigates complexities with difficulty, appears averse to controversy and conflict, and does not know enough of government and its dynamics to make timely decisions with ease and confidence. 

Today, the more agile online army of the Dutertes has planted three narratives against Marcos: that he’s a cokehead, his wife is running the show, and he’s lazy and lame.

But is he all of that?

The ambassadors and world leaders he’s pressed palms with will say otherwise. He’s focused, studious, and respectful, they say. In general, business people, while wary of the few cronies by his side, recognize his effort; he comes prepared for meetings with them, they say. Cabinet secretaries enjoy enough autonomy, though they sometimes gripe about the bottleneck in Malacañang and the occasional calls about this and that appointment.

Problems with attention

Many ask: why, despite all the trash thrown at the Vice President, does Marcos seem to be in a tight battle with her for public approval?

She attracts attention — good and bad — and attention is everything in today’s TikToked politics. In contrast, Marcos shows discomfort with attention so that he settles just for a few ambush interviews and formal ceremonies of cutting ribbons, shaking hands on gilded stages, speaking at podiums, walking on airport runways flanked by ho-hum characters, visiting provinces with unpopular politicians, among others.

He’s too cut and dried and seldom wears his heart on his sleeve, forgetting he needs to connect with a perennially distracted public. Sara Duterte, like her father, has no trouble with attention.

Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo comes to mind. She was always coiffed and well-put, but she shunned spontaneous encounters with the public and media, especially after the “Hello, Garci” scandal that made her more aloof. In her Cabinet, though, were strong personalities who could articulate things for her to the public.

Who does Marcos have? Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin? To borrow a lawyer’s favorite phrase —  with all due respect, the former Supreme Court justice neither has the language nor the flair nor the gravitas to speak for, defend, or explain the President.

Challenges for last half

Three key concerns stand to weaken Marcos going into the last half. 

First is the perception that he governs through First Lady Liza Marcos and his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez — and can’t handle his estranged manang, Senator Imee Marcos.

Second is the staggering stories of corruption and bribery — and Malacañang’s apparent tolerance (or, pray tell, ignorance?) of them.

Third is the drain on the majority of Filipino households’ incomes — and the shameless display of wealth of the minority.

What was it that Imelda Marcos once said? “Perception is real; truth is not.” The President is perceived to be not in full control of his own office’s power levers. It is said there’s a beeline of vested interests that he is unable to manage without the perspective of the First Lady or the Speaker, or both. 

If this is not true, then he is duty-bound to prove it by showing it. 

It could be said that the removal of Romualdez’s sparring partner in the House, Representative Zaldy Co, from the powerful appropriations committee over the budget mess is one sign. But Marcos did not make the decision to cut Co; it’s the budget scandal that decided this for him. So it bears asking: Just how many similar instances have there been for the President, when he allowed situations to make the decisions for him?

Whether in the high-heeled villages in Metro Manila or the backstreets of Bicol, there’s also persistent talk about the buying sprees of officials and their scandalous lifestyles.

Ayuda cash is flowing in an endless stream from the hands of lawmakers and government executives to their middlemen and brokers and down to voters (provided they’re pro-Marcos, of course). Rather than institutionalize assistance to the poor, the government has personalized and politicized it further — like a rescue dose designed to make one forget about the real pain of rising prices, broken bridges, unbuilt roads, and malfunctioning services.

There is only so much that these instant cures can do when every trip to the market reminds one of a thin pocket.

Whatever the sins of the Dutertes, they will no longer be enough to distract the nation from the challenges of its day-to-days. The system catches up in the last half of a presidential term. We know this from presidents who have encountered the same situation. Robbers get more brazen. Kidnappings escalate. Moribund movements suddenly come to life again. Things begin to falter.

Marcos has this year to fix things, to show that he’s grown into the presidency and not been diminished by it. 

By 2026, all bets are off for reasons that past presidents who had become lame ducks know only too well. – Rappler.com