Do we like Ferdinand Marcos Jr.?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real good-faith words on Pride and an anti-corruption push sit beside a tax conviction, a credentials row and unresolved allegations aimed at him.
Bongbong is the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, and he ran for president in 2021 on that very name. He now holds the job. So before you get to anything he's said or done himself, understand that a lot of Filipinos, martial law survivors especially, see his rise as the family brand being polished back up.
On the history, he has pushed back on the idea that he's rewriting it. In September 2022 ABC-CBN reported him saying there's no reason to revise history. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a son defending his dad or a president declining to reopen a wound.
Now the personal record. A Quezon City court convicted him in 1995 of failing to file income tax returns in the 1980s, and the Court of Appeals modified the ruling and affirmed the conviction in 1997. In 2021 petitioners said he had never paid the fines, while his camp argued there was no misrepresentation in his candidacy papers. Separately, Oxford told VERA Files he didn't finish his degree and got a special diploma, and VERA rated the claim of a full bachelor's false.
On the harm check, the words are better than the results. His June 2026 Pride message said the government will ensure LGBTQIA+ Filipinos get equal protection, opportunities and respect, and he said inclusion should show up in policy, not just speeches. But Outrage reported that in June 2024 he left both the divorce bill and the anti-discrimination bill off his priority list, despite saying on the 2022 trail he was open to divorce.
On the planet, environmental groups slammed his 2025 State of the Nation address as light on substance while disasters mounted. As for the company he keeps, there are no dodgy co-stars here. The question is political: his cousin Martin Romualdez, the former Speaker, is under Ombudsman investigation over the flood-control mess, and Marcos says the family won't be spared.
The biggest cloud is the flood-control scandal. In January 2026 civil society members filed an impeachment complaint alleging a mechanism to divert about 545.6 billion pesos, though an analyst gave it a very slim chance. In February, 18 men claiming to be ex-Marines alleged Marcos was the mastermind; the Navy said four never served, the Palace called it a “lousy script”, and the NBI is looking into it. The affidavits haven't been independently verified, and he denies it through his office.