Bongbong Marcos

Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (UK: /ˈmɑːrkɒs/, US: /-koʊs, -kɔːs/, Tagalog: [ˈmaɾkɔs]; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child and only son of 10th president Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos.

In 1980, Marcos was elected vice governor of Ilocos Norte, running unopposed with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of his father, who was ruling the Philippines under martial law at the time. He then became governor in 1983, holding that office until his family was ousted from power by the People Power Revolution and fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986. After the death of his father in 1989, President Corazon Aquino allowed his family to return to the Philippines to face various charges. Marcos and his mother, Imelda, are currently facing arrest in the United States for defying a court order to pay US$353 million (₱17,385,250,000 in 2025) in restitution to human rights abuse victims during his father's dictatorship. However, as long as he is president, he can enter the United States due to diplomatic immunity.

Marcos was elected as the representative of Ilocos Norte's second district, serving from 1992 to 1995. He was elected governor again in 1998. After nine years, he returned to his previous position as representative from 2007 to 2010, before entering the Senate of the Philippines under the Nacionalista Party for a single term from 2010 to 2016. Marcos unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2016 election, narrowly losing to Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo. Marcos contested the result at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but his electoral protest was unanimously dismissed after the pilot recount resulted in Robredo widening her lead by 15,093 additional votes.

Marcos ran for president in the 2022 election under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, which he won by a landslide with nearly 59% of the vote. His win was the largest since 1981, when his father won 88% of the votes due to a boycott by the opposition who protested the prior election.

Marcos's presidential campaign received criticism from fact-checkers and disinformation scholars, who found his campaign to be driven by historical negationism aimed at rehabilitating the Marcos brand and smearing his rivals. His campaign has also been accused of whitewashing the human rights abuses and plunder, estimated at 5 to 13 billion dollars, that took place during his father's presidency. The Washington Post has noted how the historical distortionism of the Marcoses has been underway since the 2000s, while The New York Times cited his convictions of tax fraud, including his refusal to pay his family's estate taxes, and misrepresentation of his education at the University of Oxford. In 2024, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.