Son of Philippines’ former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, announces presidential bid | The World — Transcript

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1. 0:00not a surprise and we know a lot about
2. 0:02him he is now 64 years old but he his
3. 0:05family's wealth i they were
4. 0:07beneficiaries this his sister and he
5. 0:09were both beneficiaries to some of that
6. 0:11account by u.s accounts it's 10 billion
7. 0:14us dollars that were taken by his father
8. 0:17like his father uh he has been both a
9. 0:20congressman and a senator uh
10. 0:23he's repeating the late the dictator's
11. 0:26path um and it just shows you how
12. 0:28resilient this family is
13. 0:30i think one of the interesting things to
14. 0:32look at here though is how he has gotten
15. 0:34to this point which is the massive
16. 0:37disinformation network that really is
17. 0:39seeking to change history what one
18. 0:42church group called historical denialism
19. 0:45and that has been chronicled by rappler
20. 0:48in an investigation in 2019. interesting
21. 0:52also to understand how the public view
22. 0:55him how do filipinos view ferdinand
23. 0:57marcos jr
24. 0:59extremely divided i mean you know he
25. 1:02almost won as vice president he brought
26. 1:05that to the supreme court he won his
27. 1:06vice president against leni robredo who
28. 1:08is expected to file her candidacy
29. 1:11tomorrow um she is now vice president
30. 1:15the lead of the opposition but as he
31. 1:17filed his candidacy for president today
32. 1:20you know there were about 100 people who
33. 1:22protested against him uh reminding
34. 1:25people uh what his father and his family
35. 1:28have done
36. 1:29what chances do you think he has of
37. 1:32securing the presidency compared to
38. 1:33others who have thrown their hat into
39. 1:35the ring so far including former boxer
40. 1:38manny pacquiao
41. 1:40yeah
42. 1:40the more people the greater the chance
43. 1:42marcos has
44. 1:45president duterte won in a field of five
45. 1:47with 39 of the votes in 2016. right our
46. 1:51president is elected for a six-year term
47. 1:53in a field of eight
48. 1:56bongbong marcos just based on name
49. 1:58recall gains greater power in the last
50. 2:00statistical survey by pulse asia in
51. 2:02september he was actually second just
52. 2:05behind the daughter of duterte sarah
53. 2:07duterte who who is mayor of davao city
54. 2:10now so this is uh you know it
55. 2:14our country
56. 2:15our country's democracy will depend on
57. 2:17what happens in these elections in may
58. 2:19there's speculation that bang bong might
59. 2:21even form an alliance with president
60. 2:23duterte's daughter sarah how might this
61. 2:25work
62. 2:28it's a tactic that has been used by the
63. 2:30duterte family
64. 2:32to stay in power in davao city since
65. 2:351988 right the duterte family has done
66. 2:37that it's called substitution
67. 2:40and what what we expect president
68. 2:42duterte in on sunday actually said that
69. 2:45he would retire from politics that he
70. 2:47would not run for vice president and yet
71. 2:50this is a tactic that he did in 2015 and
72. 2:54at the last minute in november so we
73. 2:56won't really know until november he
74. 2:58substituted in for president on someone
75. 3:01else's candidacy so we expect something
76. 3:04like that could happen and it would be
77. 3:06very potent because there are families
78. 3:08that own the north and on the south
79. 3:11so you don't think that for uh president
80. 3:14duterte this might be the end of his uh
81. 3:17spell in politics
82. 3:20wait and see until the end of until
83. 3:22after the period of substitution is over
84. 3:24again this is a tactic that is used in
85. 3:27local elections
86. 3:29rarely i think president duterte is the
87. 3:31first one to really bring this to the
88. 3:32national stage it makes a mockery of of
89. 3:35the spirit of the certificates of
90. 3:38candidacy so tactics over
91. 3:41spirit i suppose
92. 3:42let's talk about some of the other
93. 3:43candidates as we mentioned former boxing
94. 3:45champion manny pacquiao hugely popular
95. 3:48and also the mayor of manila have
96. 3:50announced their candidacy how do you
97. 3:52think they'll fare in the election
98. 3:55it will really depend on the number of
99. 3:58candidates who will run and their base
100. 4:00their political base the mayor of of
101. 4:03manila is
102. 4:04a movie star he was a former movie star
103. 4:07and so he may have name recall in
104. 4:10different parts of the philippines but
105. 4:12he yet he still has to prove that he can
106. 4:15get votes in a nationwide
107. 4:18in a nationwide post
108. 4:20manny pacquiao is well known but this is
109. 4:23going to be
110. 4:24money thrown into this is going to be
111. 4:26very critical but i think more than
112. 4:28anything all of these candidates are
113. 4:30going to have to deal with
114. 4:33facts
115. 4:34changing the facts to fit what they want
116. 4:37to do and this is part of why facebook
117. 4:39will play a critical role in our
118. 4:41elections
119. 4:43very important elections coming up
120. 4:45meanwhile your upcoming book is called
121. 4:47how to stand up to a dictator what do
122. 4:49you think bong bong and others like
123. 4:50pacquiao would mean for media freedom in
124. 4:53the philippines if they're if they're
125. 4:56elected and also this is a double
126. 4:57question what safeguards are needed to
127. 4:59ensure the upcoming elections are run
128. 5:01free and fairly
129. 5:04i'll answer the second one first and
130. 5:06then move forward like look this is
131. 5:08going to be a battle for fox and a
132. 5:11marcos win will happen if he
133. 5:13successfully erases history if he
134. 5:16successfully entrenches um historical
135. 5:19denialism and the problem is that the
136. 5:21distribution platform of news the
137. 5:23world's largest distribution platform is
138. 5:25facebook and as you can see it in the us
139. 5:27senate last night
140. 5:30lies laced with anger and he spread
141. 5:32faster and further than facts so you
142. 5:34pound a lie a million times it becomes a
143. 5:37fact this is what we see happening
144. 5:39burnishing the brand of the marcosus
145. 5:41turning the marcos name from dictator to
146. 5:45you know potentially president again
147. 5:48my book is about the how to stand up to
148. 5:51a dictator is really a wake-up call to
149. 5:53all of us around the world what you're
150. 5:54seeing happening in the philippines is
151. 5:57only you know a case study of what is
152. 5:59coming your way
153. 6:01because we use the same distribution
154. 6:03platforms for facts right what we have
155. 6:06seen this year alone oxford university's
156. 6:08computational propaganda research
157. 6:10project says that in at least 81
158. 6:13countries around the world cheap armies
159. 6:14on social media are rolling back
160. 6:16democracy it is changing the way we
161. 6:18behave it is changing the integrity of
162. 6:21the vote so we're going to have to stand
163. 6:23up for that you're going to have to
164. 6:25stand up and define the world you want
165. 6:28maria ressa thanks so much for talking
166. 6:30to us tonight we really appreciate it
167. 6:55you