MANILA ¨C Ferdinand ¡°Bongbong¡± Marcos Jr. was 28 years old when a helicopter whisked his family from the Philippines¡¯ presidential palace as millions of protesters demanded the ouster of his dictator father in a historic ¡°people power¡± revolution.
Just over 36 years later, the son is celebrating a landslide victory in a presidential election, an extraordinary comeback for a family once best known for widespread human rights abuses and the plunder of an estimated $10 billion.
Marcos¡¯ share of the vote from Monday¡¯s election was double that of his nearest rival according to an unofficial election commission tally. The results ¡ª largely deemed legitimate, unlike the last election held during his father¡¯s martial law rule ¡ª left some of the original people power activists dejected and confused. ¡°We said in 1986, ¡®Never again,¡¯¡± said Florencio Abad, who was among the millions of protesters who swarmed the streets of Manila back then and later became a member of the cabinet. ¡°How did they manage to come back?¡±
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