Philippine presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he wants his country to have a military presence in the South China Sea, "not to fire upon" vessels but to defend its waters in a long-running dispute with China.
Marcos, son of the late autocrat of the same name, is leading in opinion polls ahead of the May 9 election and appears poised to complete a remarkable rebranding of the family name 36 years after a "people power" uprising ended his father's rule.
