Philippines’ Marcos Jnr will take presidential oath at venue linked to father’s brutal legacy
- The former Philippine Congress building was once the scene of violent protests by student activists who accused Marcos Snr of cheating his way to a second term in 1969
- Playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, who participated in student protests and was jailed during Marcos Snr’s dictatorship, says he continues to be labelled as an agitator out ‘to embarrass’ son Marcos Jnr
At noon on Thursday, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr will take his presidential oath on the steps of the Philippines’ former legislature, where his late father-president was once confronted by student activists with a black paper-mache coffin and a crocodile.
His inauguration as the nation’s 17th president will be “very solemn and simple”, event organisers said. “We will not stray from tradition,” Marcos Jnr said.
Historian Ambeth Ocampo surmised that the venue – the National Museum of Fine Arts building which used to house the Philippine Congress until Marcos Snr shut it down in 1972 – was chosen for its “optics”. Its American colonial-style period columns mimic the backdrop for the inauguration of US presidents who take their oath on the steps of the Capitol.
Whoever picked the venue did not know Philippine history, said Ocampo, a former head of the National Historical Commission, on Sunday.
First, Ocampo said, all three presidents who took their oaths there – Manuel Quezon, Jose Laurel and Manuel Roxas – not only failed to finish their term, two of them – Quezon and Roxas – died while in office.
Second, “that is where the First Quarter Storm began”, said Ocampo, referring to the series of increasingly violent student protests following the 1969 election, in which Marcos Snr was accused of having cheated to win a second term.
