On the other side of the world, Britain’s Filipino community have not been immune to the divisions preceding the apparent landslide victory on Tuesday of Ferdinand Marcos Jr – son and namesake of the infamous ousted dictator.
Even among the UK’s sizeable expatriate community – whose hundreds of thousands include many who form the backbone of Britain’s healthcare system – friends and family have split over the choice of their homeland’s new president.
“I’m afraid that there are people who no longer speak to me, and when there have been community gatherings it’s clear that people have some very strong opinions,” said Araial Ilustre, a Coventry-based occupational therapist and supporter of defeated Marcos opponent Leni Robredo, who told of co-workers falling out and social media trolling.
For Ilustre – whose own family history intertwined with that of the Marcos dynasty in the form of his father’s role as a senior figure in the security detail of Ferdinand senior – the election result this week is nothing short of “a regression”, fuelled in his eyes by the impact of social media.
By contrast, the prevailing mood on the streets of Earl’s Court – dubbed in the past as “Little Manila” on account of the Filipino presence – the prevailing mood was one of elation.
On streets that are home to Filipino shops, cafes and restaurants, supporters of Marcos Jr – nicknamed “Bongbong” – wore red in support of his victory, apparently assured as unofficial results on Tuesday gave him more than 30.8m votes with more than 97% of the poll tabulated.
Marcos Jr supporters included those who were not born when the politician’s father was ousted in a popular revolt that ended a brutal dictatorship, marked by thousands of extrajudicial killings and extensive use of torture.
“Most people I know were supporting Marcos. It isn’t a surprise that he won but we were shocked by the gap between Leni and Bongbong,” said restaurant worker Kerry-Anne, 27. “Even though I don’t know much about him, I have spoken to my grandparents about him and they say that his dad was good back in the day – and I think they know better than me. That’s why I was supporting him.”
A sense of trust in the family and a notion that he had “grown up in politics” was cited by others as a reason for their attraction towards Marcos, whose own time in the UK included a stint at Oxford University – albeit amid some controversy over whether he earned a degree.
“It’s in his blood to run,” said business owner Michael Majdalena, 46. “For me, Marcos was the best candidate to win from all the candidates. He’ll be able to clear his dad’s bad reputation, we need to just give him a chance.”
Salon owner, Jay, 58, went as far as expressing the view that the victory of Marcos would bring about a return of democracy back to the Philippines in the wake of strongman Rodrigo Duterte’s rule.
“He’s the only qualified presidential candidate,” he says, “I believe in his aim to unify all the Filipino people, no matter where they are from, the wealthy and the poor. I think Marcos is the sign of a better democracy and a more progressive Philippines.”
That narrative was contested by others such as Araial Ilustre – who remembered the overthrow of Marcos senior in 1986 as a moment of hope and influential precursor to the fall some years later of the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe.
“To say we are devastated is an understatement,” admitted Mira Edgcombe, who works in the UK education sector and described, with a chuckle, her activism alongside others in support of Robredo as “almost like a second job”.
“We understand that democracy is very fragile, but while we process the results we are also telling ourselves that it’s a long game and there’s so much to take from the campaign.
“Robredo started out from a very low base, not even as the principal challenger, and we have effectively been fighting against a decade of revisionism and rebranding about what the Marcos family stood for. We’re not going to give up.”
