In Manila, in taking the oath of office the new president is back in Malacanang Palace together with his mother Imelda. Marcos Jr appoints himself Secretary of Agriculture. In his maiden speech, he slammed the mechanisms of global trade. He praised Duterte for infrastructure development, but pointed to shortcomings in the fight against COVID-19.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Thirty-six years after the peaceful People Power revolution, the Marcos are back in Malacanang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines.
This follows the swearing-in ceremony of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos who was elected with more than 58 per cent of the vote in the elections held on 9 May. The new president is the son and namesake of the former dictator who ruled the country between 1965 and 1986
Marcos Jr took the oath of at the National Museum in Manila, with his mother, 92-year-old Imelda Marcos, in the front row. During the ceremony, the new president called for national unity while urging Filipinos to look more to the future than to the past.
The new head of state did not fail to claim the legacy of his father. “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.”
As for his goals, Marcos Jr stressed agriculture in his speech. In fact, he plans to run the Agriculture Department himself. He harshly criticised international agricultural markets, which are showing their limits in the food crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.
“The most vulnerable when it comes to food are the countries farthest away from the conflict,” he said; “those bearing no blame for provoking it. Yet they face the biggest risk of starvation. If financial aid is poured into them – though it never is, there is nothing to buy.”
What is more, “Food is not just a trade commodity. [. . .] it is an existential imperative and a moral one. [. . .] Food sufficiency must get the preferential treatment the riches, free trade countries always gave their agricultural sectors.”
Education is another priority for the new president, who appointed Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of now former President Rodrigo Duterte, to the post of Secretary of Education. For Marcos Jr, content and methods in education need a rethink.
“I am not talking about history,” he said, in reference to the controversy surrounding his father’s legacy, “I’m talking about the basics, the sciences, [. . .] and imparting vocational skills [. . .]. We are condemning the future of our race to menial occupations abroad. Then they are exploited by traffickers.”
On health, he admitted the shortcomings of the Duterte administration during the COVID-19 pandemic. “[W]e will fix them – out in the open. No more secrets in public health,” he pledged.
He praised the outgoing president for building infrastructures “more and better than all the administrations succeeding my father’s”, but said nothing about Duterte’s controversial “war on drugs" and its 6,000 dead.
Marcos Jr used the issue of climate change - with typhoons reaping more and more victims in the Philippines – to attack the West.
“The rich world talks a great deal but does a lot less about it than those with much less, but who suffer more death and destruction.” he said.
“We will look to our partners and friends to help the Philippines, who, despite having a very small carbon footprint, is at the highest risk,” he added.
“We too have our part to play; we are the third biggest plastics polluter in the world. But we won’t shirk from that responsibility; we will clean up.”