Marcos Jr. appreciated to win as hundreds of thousands of Filipinos vote in presidential polls - CNBC

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seems poised to be the next president of the Philippines as millions begun vote casting on Monday, below the watchful eyes of thousands of security forces after violence claimed 4 lives over the weekend. 

If he wins, Marcos Jr. â€" son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.â€" is expected to walk a tightrope between the U.S. and China.

"Eight out of 10 Filipinos would really like us to be greater assertive towards China," pointed out Victor Manhit from BowerGroupAsia, who turned into citing a survey by way of Social weather Stations, a non-public non-income company that tracks public opinion on political, social and economic considerations within the Philippines.

"There are at least 84% of Filipinos telling us that if we're a small country, perhaps it's time to build multilateral partnership and strength. and that is the reason why we saw all the way through the campaign itself that Marcos slowly shifted. it's possible that he heard this public clamor," he informed CNBC's "Squawk field Asia" on Monday.

Popularly called Bongbong, Marcos has tried to recast his father's legacy as corresponding to former U.S. president John F. Kennedy's family unit in its glamor. His father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. ruled with an iron fist for two many years unless he became overthrown in 1986, and exiled to Hawaii where he died.

Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is generally expected to emerge the winner within the presidential elections within the Philippines, the place voters queue up to vote on Monday backyard a polling station in Batac in Ilocos Norte province.

Lauren Decicca | Getty pictures news | Getty photographs

according opinion polls released closing Monday, the sixty four-12 months-old namesake son of the deposed dictator will win greater than half the votes to turn into the primary presidential candidate to comfy an absolute majority in a long time.

The survey showed he polled at fifty six% â€" means forward of his leading rival incumbent Vice-President Leni Robredo who become at 23%.

Robredo, a fifty seven-12 months-ancient attorney and economist, will need a low turnout or a late surge of aid to rating an upset. 

Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, seventy seven, is constitutionally barred from in search of a 2d term. He has now not recommended any candidate, but his daughter Sara is Bongbong Marcos' running mate.

instructions from Duterte

The Philippines has lengthy been a standard armed forces ally of the U.S. but after his presidential election in 2016, Duterte moved nearer to China and dramatically declared his country's "separation" from the U.S.

It remains uncertain how Marcos Jr.'s expected victory would change the country's relationship with China, but there was public sadness with the slant towards China and some refined guidelines of a change, in line with Manhit.

The next president "should be taught from the lessons" of the Duterte administration, which "received nothing" at the conclusion of the day, he mentioned, including that "appeasement most effective benefited chinese language pastimes."

He additionally pointed out that not one of the promised chinese investments got here into the Philippines.

a further analyst predicted that there could be a change within the subservience in tone toward China below a Marcos Jr. presidency.

"I think the slavish language against China can be far more subdued. I don't consider he's gonna go out there and say 'i really like China' or that i am 'gonna break free the U.S'.," said Richard Heydarian, a political scientist on the Polytechnic tuition of Philippines.

"Marcos is a clean operator," he mentioned , including that "anybody" could be "an improvement over Duterte on so many fronts." He observed he expects additional-judicial killings within the Philippines to head down if Marcos Jr. became president.

tens of millions head to the polls

After six years of hardline rule beneath Duterte, all over which the country witnessed a brutal anti-drug conflict, a landslide win for the more youthful Marcos may cast democracy in the Philippines into unchartered waters.

each Bongbong and Sara Duterte have referred to they're surest qualified to "unify" the nation. 

Filippinos will additionally pick a vice-president, senators, reduce condominium legislators and provincial in addition to native officers in polls that have attracted about sixty five.7 million registered voters within the country and 1.sixty nine million others overseas, based on suggestions from the election committee. 

Over 50% of voters are between the a long time of 18 and forty one, which means they have no reminiscence of the brutal rule of Marcos Sr. because they had been either no longer born or too younger to take into account the mass incarcerations, torture and different abuses of that period. 

Elections in the Philippines are commonly marred by violence. On Saturday, four people have been killed in a shootout between candidates for mayoral elections in the northern Ilocos Sur province. Three security guards had been additionally killed in Buluan municipality on restive Mindanao island within the southern Philippines on Monday when gunmen opened fire at a polling station, based on AFP information company.

In all, there have been sixteen election-related violent incidents all over this crusade, lower than in 2016 and 2019. greater than 60,000 safety personnel were deployed to protect polling stations and election laborers.