The Duo Fighting to Preserve Dynastic Rule in the Philippines
Updated at 10:57 a.m. ET on January 14, 2021.
The wedding ceremony held in November on a verdant farm in the Philippines was for the daughter of a senator. Most of the guests’ attention, though, was paid not to the bride and the groom but to another duo in attendance.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the country’s late dictator, escorted Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of the current president, Rodrigo Duterte, past guests sitting in white trellis-backed chairs. Marcos wore a dark suit with a boutonniere pinned to his lapel, his face partially obscured by a mauve-colored mask. Duterte-Carpio sported a gray dress and clutched a bouquet of white flowers. They interlocked arms as they walked. Amid weeks of unrelenting speculation about their respective political futures, their stroll down the aisle, predictably, and likely by design, added to the hype. Was the event, attended by numerous members of the Philippine elite and closely watched for hints of the country’s political direction, one headline wondered, the “wedding of the century”?
The pair proved at least one of the rampant rumors true a few days later, when they announced that they would be running mates in the presidential election in May 2022.. Marcos is the presidential hopeful; Duterte-Carpio, the vice-presidential candidate. (In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately. This split-ticket voting allows for the president and vice president to come from different parties and have differing political views, as is currently the case.) The decision to team up was both deftly strategic and highly symbolic of the state of politics in the country.
