MANILA, Philippines — Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte joined forces to pull off the biggest Philippine election win in four decades. The question now is whether they can stay united over the next six years.
Election data shows that Marcos owes Sara Duterte and her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, for the large margin of victory. Although Marcos beat runner-up Leni Robredo by almost 31 percentage points in the May 9 election, Sara Duterte won the race for vice president by an even bigger amount.
Signs of underlying tensions emerged just days after the vote, when Marcos, 64, picked Sara Duterte, 43, as his education secretary even though she had publicly said she wanted to oversee the defense portfolio. In the end, she accepted, saying she wanted the “most harmonious administration possible” and she expected naysayers to “fabricate intrigues about her loyalty.”
