Martial Law Was Not a Political Panacea for the Philippines
Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been making headlines lately as the presidential race in the Philippines runs ever closer towards the 2022 elections in May this year. On the local level, and at the time of this writing, he maintains a commanding lead in polls and opinion surveys despite opting out of public debates against other candidates. With overwhelming support behind him, he is currently poised to possibly win the elections and become the next president after Rodrigo Duterte.
To a global audience savvy with world history, his name may come across as familiar; in which case, he is perhaps best known for being the son and namesake of the very same dictator who declared martial law in the Philippines back in the 1970s. He brands himself as a changemaker, and in some ways, he promises not to be like his father. It would be admittedly unjust to hold him fully accountable for the sins of another, even if the other person in question is next-of-kin.
However, any conversations about the various issues during the martial law years under the late President Ferdinand Marcos are often colored by political affiliations or differences in experiences, and necessarily affect the direction of the ongoing campaign. Some rightfully decry it as a brutal regime plagued by human rights violations, cronyism, and economic lows, as others look back with fond but misplaced nostalgia towards what they believe to have been a desirable golden age.
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Article from Mises Wire
