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On 9 May 2022, almost fifty years after President Ferdinand Marcos (1917–89) established a martial-law dictatorship in the Philippines, his son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won an emphatic 58.8 percent of the vote to become the country's next president for a constitutionally prescribed single six-year term. His nearest rival in the four-candidate field, Vice-President Leni Robredo, won only 27.9 percent. Marcos Jr.'s total made him the first presidential candidate with more than 50 percent since his father had claimed 53.6 percent in the February 1986 snap election that he called. (The last Philippine presidential contender to top 50 percent in a competitive election was also Marcos Sr., who in his first try for the presidency had won 51.9 percent against Diosdado Macapagal in 1965's two-candidate race.) The new vice-president—they are elected separately from presidents in the Philippines—is Sara Duterte, a mayor from the southern island of Mindanao and the daughter of outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte. She won her four-person race with 61.5 percent.
Campaigning via generic appeals to populism and authoritarian nostalgia, Marcos Jr. promised affordable basic goods, law and order, decisive leadership, and "unity." Urbane and soft-spoken, the 64-year-old Marcos projected a "cool" image whose lack of rough edges came across well on social media.1 Dominating across every major demographic, he did especially well with younger voters and with those who view the martial-law era more favorably as well as those who reside in northern Luzon, where the Ilocano language is widely spoken. With a huge mandate and support from all key players in the country, Marcos Jr. is now in position to build a new political order.
Institutional checks and balances will not stand in his way. In contests also held May 9 for all 316 seats in the House of Representatives and half the seats in the 24-member Senate, only a single progressive candidate (Risa Hontiveros) won a seat in the latter body. Administration allies will control the House. The fifteen-justice Supreme Court, meanwhile, contains only two jurists who are not appointees of the populist authoritarian Rodrigo Duterte.
How did the Marcos-Duterte axis achieve its resounding victory? As the elections approached, the opposition struggled to rally behind a single leader with broad appeal. Its eventual standard-bearer, Vice-President Leni Robredo, waited almost until...