Age, Biography, and Wiki
Age: 67 (as of 2024)
Biography: Bongbong Marcos is the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos and former First Lady Imelda Marcos. He has been involved in politics since his early days, serving in various roles, including Senator and Governor of Ilocos Norte. Marcos Jr. was elected as President of the Philippines in 2022, marking a significant return of the Marcos family to power after decades.
| Occupation | Prime Ministers |
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| Date of Birth | 13 September 1957 |
| Age | 67 Years |
| Birth Place | Santa Mesa, Manila, Philippines |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Country | Philippines |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Specific details about his height and weight are not widely available, but he is known for his public appearances and engagements in political events.
On March 31, 2020, Marcos's spokesperson confirmed that Marcos had tested positive for COVID-19. Prior to getting tested, Marcos was reportedly experiencing chest pains after coming home from a trip to Spain. He has since recovered from the disease after testing negative on a RT-PCR test on May 5, 2020, a month after testing positive for COVID-19. On July 8, 2022, Marcos's press secretary confirmed that Marcos had tested positive again for COVID-19 after experiencing slight fever.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Bongbong Marcos is married to Louise Araneta Marcos. They have three sons together: Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, Joseph Simon Marcos, and William Vincent Marcos.
In 1980, Marcos became Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte, running unopposed with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of his father, who was ruling the Philippines under martial law at the time. He then became Governor of Ilocos Norte in 1983, holding that office until his family was ousted from power by the People Power Revolution and fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986. After the death of his father in 1989, President Corazon Aquino eventually allowed his family to return to the Philippines to face various charges. Marcos and his mother, Imelda, are currently facing arrest in the United States for defying a court order to pay US$353 million (₱ in 2025) in restitution to human rights abuse victims during his father's dictatorship. However, as long as he is president of the Philippines, he can enter the United States due to diplomatic immunity.
Marcos ran for President of the Philippines in the 2022 election under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, which he won by a landslide with nearly 59% of the vote. His win was the largest since 1981, when his father won 88% of the votes due to a boycott by the opposition who protested the prior election.
Marcos's presidential campaign received criticism from fact-checkers and disinformation scholars, who found his campaign to be driven by historical negationism aimed at rehabilitating the Marcos brand and smearing his rivals. His campaign has also been accused of whitewashing the human rights abuses and plunder, estimated at 5 to 13 billion dollars, that took place during his father's presidency. The Washington Post has noted how the historical distortionism of the Marcoses has been underway since the 2000s, while The New York Times cited his convictions of tax fraud, including his refusal to pay his family's estate taxes, and misrepresentation of his education at the University of Oxford. In 2024, Time magazine listed him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.
on September 13, 1957, at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Santa Mesa, Manila, Philippines, to Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos. At the time of his birth, his father Ferdinand was the representative for the second district of Ilocos Norte, eventually becoming a senator just two years later. His godfathers included prominent personalities and future Marcos cronies Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. and pharmaceuticals magnate Jose Yao Campos.
In 1970, Marcos was sent to England where he lived and studied at Worth School, an all-boys Benedictine institution in West Sussex. He was studying there when his father declared martial law throughout the Philippines in 1972.
Marcos was thrust into the national limelight as early as when he was three years old, and the scrutiny became even more intense when his father first ran for President of the Philippines in 1965, when he was eight years old.
During his father's 1965 campaign, Marcos played himself in the Sampaguita Pictures film Iginuhit ng Tadhana (The Ferdinand E. Marcos Story), a biopic based on the novel For Every Tear a Victory. The young Marcos was portrayed giving a speech towards the end of the film, in which he says that he would like to be a politician when he grows up. The public relations value of the film is credited for having helped the elder Marcos win the 1965 Philippine elections.
A young Bongbong Marcos and his sister Imee played a small role in the controversial "Manila incident" of the Beatles in July 1966, just six months after their father assumed the presidency. Bongbong and Imee were among 400 children whom their mother Imelda brought to Malacañang Palace for a reception in which they expected the Beatles to show up. The four band members claimed not to know about the event, and refused to attend. As the event went on without them, the Marcos children were interviewed. Bongbong, referring to the group's long hair, was quoted saying "I'd like to pounce on the Beatles and cut off their hair! Don't anybody dare me to do anything, because I'll do it, just to see how game the Beatles are." Imee, meantime, was quoted saying "There is only one song I like from the Beatles, and it's Run for Your Life." —a quote which media later associated with the way the Beatles scrambled out of Manila, receiving rough treatment at Manila International Airport.
Marcos was appointed by his father to be chairman of the board of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT) in early 1985. In a prominent example of what Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin later branded "crony capitalism", the Marcos administration had sold its majority shares to Marcos cronies such as Roberto S. Benedicto, Manuel H. Nieto, Jose Yao Campos, and Rolando Gapud in 1982, despite being very profitable because of its role as the sole agent for the Philippines' link to global satellite network Intelsat. President Marcos acquired a 39.9% share in the company through front companies under Campos and Gapud. This allowed President Marcos to appoint his son as the chairman of the Philcomsat board in early 1985, allowing the young Marcos to draw a monthly salary "ranging from US$9700 to US$97000" (₱ to ₱ in 2025) despite rarely visiting the office and having no duties there. PHILCOMSAT was one of five telecommunications firms sequestered by the Philippine government in 1986.
In addition, by the time their father was ousted from power in 1986, both Marcos Jr. and Imee held key posts in the Marcos administration. Imee was already 30 when she was appointed as the national head of the Kabataang Barangay in the late 1970s, and Marcos Jr. was in his 20s when he took up the vice-gubernatorial post for the province of Ilocos Norte in 1980, and then became governor of that province from 1983 until the Marcos family was ousted from Malacañang in 1986.
During the last days of the 1986 People Power Revolution, Bongbong Marcos, in combat fatigues to project his warlike stance, pushed his father Ferdinand Marcos to give the order to his remaining troops to attack and blow up Camp Crame despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians there. The elder Marcos did not follow his son's urgings.
Fearful of a scenario in which Marcos's presence in the Philippines would lead to a civil war, the Reagan administration withdrew its support for the Marcos government, and flew Marcos and a party of about 80 individuals – the extended Marcos family and a number of close associates – from the Philippines to Hawaii despite Ferdinand Marcos's objections. Bongbong Marcos and his family were on the flight with his parents.
In the early 1990s, President Corazon Aquino permitted the return of the remaining members of the Marcos family to the Philippines to face various charges. Bongbong Marcos flew on a private plane from Singapore to the Philippines and landed in Laoag, Ilocos Norte on October 31, 1991, becoming the first Marcos family member to return to the Philippines since 1986; his mother Imelda followed suit four days later. He soon sought political office, beginning in the family's traditional fiefdom in Ilocos Norte.
Marcos ran for and was elected representative of the second district of Ilocos Norte to the Philippine House of Representatives (1992–1995). When his mother, Imelda Marcos, ran for president in the same election, he decided against supporting her candidacy, and instead expressed support for his godfather Danding Cojuangco. During his term, Marcos was the author of 29 House bills and co-author of 90 more, which includes those that paved the way for the creation of the Department of Energy and the National Youth Commission. He also allocated most of his Countryside Development Fund (CDF) to organizing the cooperatives of teachers and farmers in his home province. In October 1992, he led a group of ten representatives in attending the first sports summit in the Philippines, held in Baguio. In late 1994, he was made president of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party, which is known for its support for the Marcos regime.
Having previously served as Ilocos Norte governor from 1983 to 1986, Marcos was again elected as governor of Ilocos Norte in 1998, running against his father's closest friend and ally, Roque Ablan Jr. He served for three consecutive terms ending in 2007.
Marcos officially launched his campaign for president of the Philippines on October 5, 2021, through a video post on Facebook and YouTube. An interview with his wife Liza Marcos revealed that he decided to run for president while watching the film Ant-Man, though Marcos admitted that he could not recall this moment. He ran under the banner of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas party, assuming chairmanship of the party on the same day, while also being endorsed by his former party, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. Marcos filed his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections the following day. On November 16, Marcos announced his running mate to be Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte. Under the campaign theme of unity, Marcos and Duterte's alliance was given the name "UniTeam".
In a joint session of the 18th Congress of the Philippines, overseen by Senate President Tito Sotto and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and stated by Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri and Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez, Marcos was proclaimed the president-elect of the Philippines on May 25, 2022, alongside his running-mate, Vice-President-elect Sara Duterte. Marcos received 31,629,783 votes, or 58.77% of the total votes cast, about 16.5 million votes ahead of his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, who received over 15 million votes. He became the first presidential candidate to be elected by a majority since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1986. According to analysts, Marcos, together with Sara Duterte, "inherited" Rodrigo Duterte's popularity when they both won landslides in the election. Historians noted the significance of his victory as a "full circle" of the Philippines from the People Power Revolution, which deposed his father from the presidency, thus marking the Marcos family's return to national power after 36 years. His majority was the largest since 1981 (surpassing his father's 18,309,360 votes); as the opposition boycotted that election, it is the largest majority since 1969 for a competitive election, and his 31-percentage point margin over his nearest opponent was the greatest since Ramon Magsaysay scored a 38-point margin over incumbent President Elpidio Quirino in 1953. His vote count was not only the largest ever recorded in a presidential election, but close to the sum total of the two previous records combined.
On March 28, 2022, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III filed Senate Resolution No. 998, stating an urgent and pressing need for the Senate to look into why the estate tax has remained uncollected for almost 25 years, which the amount has already been ruled to be due and demandable against the heirs of his father.
The PCGG considers the property the "crown jewel" among the properties sequestered from the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth, estimating its minimum value to be about ₱16.5billion in March 2015. The property had been surrendered to the PCGG in 1986, as part of the settlement deal of Marcos crony Jose Yao Campos, who was holding the property under various companies on Marcos Sr.'s behalf. Ortigas & Company countered that Marcos Sr. had coerced them to sell the property to him in 1968. Marcos Jr.'s motion claimed that his father had bought the property legally, but the Sandiganbayan dismissed his motion on October 18, 2008, saying it had already dismissed a similar motion filed years earlier by his mother Imelda.
In 2011, the Hawaii District Court ruled Bongbong Marcos and his mother Imelda Marcos to be in contempt, fining them US$353.6million (₱ in 2025) fine for not respecting an injunction from a 1992 judgement in a human rights victims case, which commanded them not to dissipate the assets of Ferdinand Marcos's estate. The ruling was upheld by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 24, 2012, and is believed to be "the largest contempt award ever affirmed by an appellate court." While the 1992 case was against Ferdinand Marcos, the 2011 judgment was against Imelda and Bongbong personally. The judgement also effectively barred Imelda and Bongbong from entering any US territory. However, on June 9, 2022, United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman clarified in a roundtable discussion with local reporters during a state visit, that as a head of state, Marcos enjoys diplomatic immunity in all circumstances, stating that he is welcome to visit the United States under his official role.
In June 2024, Sara Duterte resigned from the Marcos cabinet and became critical of Marcos. In November 2024, Philippine authorities subpoenaed Vice President Sara Duterte after she threatened to have Marcos, his wife, and the House Speaker assassinated if she were killed. Marcos condemned her remarks as a criminal threat and increased his security, while National Security Adviser Eduardo Año called the threats a national security concern. Duterte clarified that her comments were not threats but a concern for her safety, dismissing the government's actions as politically motivated. She was ordered to appear before the National Bureau of Investigation, with such statements potentially leading to criminal charges. Despite growing calls for Sara Duterte's impeachment, Marcos has publicly voiced his opinion against impeaching her, calling it "a storm in a teacup" and considering the move inconsequential to the lives of Filipinos.
As with other Marcos family members who have stayed in the public eye since their return to the Philippines, Marcos has received significant criticism for instances of historical denialism, and his trivialization of the human rights violations and economic plunder that took place during the Marcos administration, and of the role he played in the administration. Specific criticisms have been leveled at Marcos for being unapologetic for human rights violations and ill-gotten wealth during his father's administration. Of the human rights victims, Marcos Jr. said of them in 1999: "They don't want an apology, they want money." He then proceeded to state that his family would apologize only if they had done something wrong.
When victims of human rights abuses during his father's administration commemorated the 40th year of the proclamation of martial law in 2012, Marcos Jr. dismissed their calls for an apology for the atrocities as "self-serving statements by politicians, self-aggrandizement narratives, pompous declarations, and political posturing and propaganda." In the Sydney Morning Herald later that year, Bongbong cited the various court decisions against the Marcos family as a reason not to apologize for Martial Law abuses, saying "we have a judgment against us in the billions. What more would people want?"
On September 20, 2018, Marcos Jr. released a YouTube video showing a tête-à-tête between him and former senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, who had been his father's defense minister before playing a key role in his ouster during the 1986 EDSA revolution. The video made a number of claims, which were quickly refuted and denounced by martial law victims, including former senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr., former DSWD secretary Judy Taguiwalo, former Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales, and writer Boni Ilagan, among others. Enrile later backpedaled from some of his claims, attributing them to "unlucid intervals."
In 1990, during a coverage of Imelda Marcos's trial in New York, Inquirer journalist Kristina Luz interviewed then-33-year-old exiled Bongbong Marcos and asked where the Marcos wealth came from. Marcos responded "only I know where the gold is and how to get it". This was corroborated in a 1992 report by the Associated Press that quoted Imelda Marcos saying that her husband's wealth came "from the Japanese and other gold he found after World War II, and not from the Philippine coffers." In 2007, Marcos informed the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan that his father's wealth came from trading "precious metals more specifically gold from the years 1946 to 1954" when he tried to win back the Ortigas Payanig property in Pasig from the national government.
On November 18, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed in a televised speech that a certain candidate for the 2022 Philippine presidential election is allegedly using cocaine, hinting at the candidate using male pronouns on several instances. Furthermore, Duterte alleged that the candidate eluded law enforcement authorities by doing drugs on a private yacht and a plane. Although he did not name the candidate, it was alluded that Duterte was referring to Marcos after he continued on his speech that the male candidate is a "weak leader" and has been "capitalizing on his father's accomplishments". Prior to that, Duterte previously named Marcos a "weak leader who had done nothing" and a "spoiled child for being an only son".
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| Husband | Louise Araneta (m. April 17, 1993) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Salary: As the President of the Philippines, Bongbong Marcos earns an annual salary of approximately $88,224 .
Net Worth: The net worth of Bongbong Marcos is not explicitly stated, but the Marcos family is known for its significant wealth, some of which is considered ill-gotten. Estimates of the Marcos family's wealth range from $5 billion to $10 billion, although some claims go as high as $30 billion .
After the Marcos family went into exile in 1986, the Presidential Commission on Good Government found that the three Marcos children benefited significantly from what the Supreme Court of the Philippines defined as "ill-gotten wealth" of the Marcos family.
In the early years of his presidency, he sought to prioritize the country's post-COVID-19 pandemic economy as highlighted by his economic agenda. He lift the lockdowns and facemask restrictions. His administration sought to target a 6.5 to 7.5% real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, with a 6.5 to 8% annual real GDP growth rate, a 9% or single-digit poverty rate by 2028, a 3% national government deficit-to-GDP ratio by 2028, lowering the country's debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 60% by 2025, and securing an upper middle-income status by 2024 with a US$4,256 income per capita, which is part of his 2023–2028 fiscal strategy. Marcos also supports the creation of additional economic zones in various areas of the country to attract investments and laid out plans to impose digital taxes and improve the country's tax compliance procedures which should improve revenue collections and cut the country's debts, while maintaining the country's disbursements at above 20 percent of its GDP.
On June 27, 1990, a special tax audit team of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) investigated the tax liabilities and obligations of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who died on September 29, 1989. The investigation disclosed in a 1991 memorandum that the Marcos family had failed to file estate tax returns and several income tax returns covering the years of 1982 to 1986 in violation of the National Internal Revenue Code.
On July 27, 1995, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Benedicto Ulep convicted Marcos to seven years in jail and a fine of US$2,812 (₱ in 2025) plus back taxes for tax evasion in his failure to file an income tax return from the period of 1982 to 1985 while sitting as the vice governor of Ilocos Norte (1980–1983) and as governor of Ilocos Norte (1983–1986). Marcos subsequently appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals over his conviction. However, in 1994, the Court of Appeals ruled that the estate tax deficiency assessment had become "final and unappealable", allowing it to be enforced.
On October 31, 1997, the Court of Appeals affirmed its earlier decision with Marcos being convicted for the failure of the filing of an income tax return under Section 45 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1977 while being acquitted of tax evasion under the charge of violating Section 50 of the same statute. In spite of the removal of the penalty of imprisonment, Marcos was ordered the payment of back income taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with interest and the issuance of corresponding fines of ₱2000 per count of non-filing of income tax returns from 1982 to 1984 and ₱30000 for 1985, plus the accrued interest. Marcos later filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the Philippines over the modified conviction imposed by the Court of Appeals but subsequently withdrew his petition on August 8, 2001, thereby declaring the ruling as final and executory.
In 2021, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court certified that there were no records on file of Marcos settling the corresponding tax dues and fines. However, according to Marcos's campaign team, documents issued by the Supreme Court, the BIR, and a receipt issued by the Land Bank of the Philippines state that the tax dues were paid, while elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon noted that the documents Marcos submitted to the Commission on Elections were not receipts of taxes paid to the BIR but rather receipts from the Land Bank for lease rentals. Nevertheless, the Commission on Elections ruled against the consolidated disqualification cases against Marcos and stated that "Further, to prove the absence of any ill-intention and bad faith on his part," Marcos submitted a Bureau of Internal Revenue certification and an official receipt from the Landbank, showing his compliance with the CA decision directing him to pay deficiency income taxes amounting to a little over ₱67000, including fines and surcharges.
The estate tax deficiency assessment issued by the BIR has remained uncollected since the Supreme Court ruling on October 12, 1991. Since the ruling of the Supreme Court in 1997 which had junked the petition of Marcos to contest the estate tax deficiency assessment, under the Ramos, Arroyo, Aquino, and Duterte administrations, the BIR has issued renewed written demands on the Marcos family to pay the estate tax liabilities, which has remained unpaid. As a result, the estate tax deficiency assessment, with penalties, is estimated to have ballooned to ₱203819066829 (₱203.819 billion) as of 2021.
The unpaid estate tax return was used as grounds in one petition to cancel Marcos's certificate of candidacy for president in the 2022 elections. On March 1, 2022, presidential candidate and Manila mayor Isko Moreno said that he would implement the Supreme Court ruling ordering the Marcos family to pay their estate tax debts if elected, vowing to use the proceeds as relief aid (ayuda) for victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ernest Ramel, the secretary general of Aksyon Demokratiko, the party of Moreno continuously called out BIR about the issue.
The myth surrounding the gold allegedly owned by the Marcos family has been the subject of various misinformation, as in 2011, a Facebook post claimed that a certain "Tallano clan" had paid Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in gold for his legal services. Several years later, supporters of the Marcos family in a Facebook page called "Marcos Cyber Warriors" also claimed that Marcos Sr.'s wealth came from his former law client, the "Maharlikan Tallano family".
Career, Business, and Investments
- Politics: Bongbong Marcos has held various political positions, including Senator, Governor of Ilocos Norte, and Congressman. He was elected President in 2022, promising economic recovery and growth.
- Business: There is no detailed information on his personal business ventures, but his family's business involvement is extensive, with interests in real estate and other sectors.
- Investments: His administration has focused on creating economic zones and improving tax compliance to boost investments and revenue.
Marcos was elected as Representative of Ilocos Norte's 2nd congressional district from 1992 to 1995. He was elected Governor of Ilocos Norte again in 1998. After nine years, he returned to his previous position as Representative from 2007 to 2010, then became senator under the Nacionalista Party from 2010 to 2016. Marcos unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2016 election, losing to Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo by a difference of 263,473 votes; in response, Marcos filed an electoral protest at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but his petition was unanimously dismissed after the pilot recount resulted in Robredo widening her lead by 15,093 additional votes.
Marcos enrolled in the Masters in Business Administration program at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, United States, which he failed to complete. Marcos asserts that he withdrew from the program for his election as Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte in 1980. The Presidential Commission on Good Government later reported that his tuition, his US$10000 (₱ in 2025) monthly allowance, and the estate he lived in while studying at Wharton, were paid using funds that could be traced partly to the intelligence funds of the Office of the President, and partly to some of the fifteen bank accounts that the Marcoses had secretly opened in the US under assumed names.
Aside from the tuition, US$10,000 (₱ in 2025) monthly allowance, and the estates used by Marcos Jr. and Imee Marcos during their respective studies at Wharton and Princeton, each of the Marcos children was assigned a mansion in the Metro Manila area, as well as in Baguio, the Philippines' designated summer capital. Properties specifically said to have been given to Marcos Jr. included the Wigwam House compound on Outlook Drive in Baguio and the Seaside Mansion Compound in Parañaque.
After serving as Secretary of Agriculture for over a year that was marked by a rise in food prices, Marcos relinquished his position and appointed Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., president of a deep-sea fishing company and a donor to Marcos's 2022 presidential election campaign.
Marcos also reviewed the implementation of the K–12 program as part of his push to modernize the country's education system, and laid out measures such as system reforms to address the lack of jobs and potential job mismatches, reviewing the usage of English as a medium of instruction in schools, and improving the country's education technology systems. Marcos also expressed his support to modernize the country's schools by improving science-related subjects and courses, theoretical aptitude, and vocational skills.
Under his presidency, Marcos intensified the Philippines' cooperation on both economic and defense arrangements to Western countries, such as the United States, Japan, Australia, and the European Union, while strengthening its defense posture within the region. Marcos approved the designation of four additional bases to be used by the United States military under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. In May 2024, the Philippines and the United States held its largest Balikatan military exercises, fueling concerns from local civilians who fear they would be affected in any future war between the US and China. The deployment of the United States' Typhon Weapons System in an undisclosed location in northern Luzon also caught the attention of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said that Russia should resume producing nuclear-capable missiles and consider where to deploy them.
On June 19, 2007, Marcos Jr. filed a motion to intervene in, OCLP v. PCGG, Civil Case Number 0093 at the Sandiganbayan, the Philippines' anti-graft court. The case had been filed by Ortigas & Company, Ltd. Partnership (OCLP) against the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over the 18 ha former Payanig sa Pasig property bordering Ortigas Avenue, Julia Vargas Avenue, and Meralco Avenue in Ortigas Center, Pasig, which had been the site of the 'Payanig sa Pasig' theme park, but is now the location of various businesses, most notably the Metrowalk shopping and recreation complex.
In late January 2024, Marcos's alleged cocaine use was brought anew by Duterte, during a prayer rally against Charter change in Davao City. Duterte alleged that Marcos had once been included in the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency's (PDEA) drug watchlist (which the agency denied) and had been spotted using cocaine with his cohorts at a giant banana firm's plantation in Davao del Norte when Duterte was Mayor. Duterte said that these companions of Marcos were already working for his administration, and cited this as the reason why he did not vote for him in the 2022 general election. When asked by Marcos to prove the allegations, Duterte retorted that it is incumbent upon him to prove the allegations by taking a drug test, since he is the one holding public office. Marcos maintained he had never used illegal narcotics, let alone cocaine, and blamed Duterte's use of fentanyl as a response. In Duterte's defense, he had used fentanyl because it was prescribed to him by a "Dr. Javier", his alleged physician at St. Luke's Medical Center – Quezon City, to alleviate pain from injuries sustained in a motorbike accident a few years ago.
Social Network
Bongbong Marcos maintains a public presence through social media platforms, where he engages with citizens and shares updates on his administration's activities. However, specific details about his personal social media usage are limited.
Marcos's first formal role in a political office came with his election as Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte (1980–1983) at the age of 22. On March 23, 1983, he was installed as the Governor of Ilocos Norte, replacing his aunt Elizabeth Marcos-Keon, who had resigned from the post for health reasons. In 1983, he led a group of young Filipino leaders on a 10-day diplomatic mission to China to mark the tenth anniversary of Philippine–Chinese relations. He stayed in office until the People Power Revolution in 1986.
Subsequently serving as the Secretary of Agriculture, Marcos launched initiatives which aims to improve domestic agricultural output and production, while expanding measures to further establish a farm-to-market approach in providing agricultural products to local markets and far flung areas. In August 2022, as high sugar prices impacted the country due to the effects of Typhoon Odette in December 2021, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in August 2022 released an order to import 300,000 MT of sugar, which is aimed to reduce costs and increase the sugar stockpiles. A few days later, Marcos rejected the proposed importation, and Malacañang deemed the move as illegal, as the move was made without Marcos's approval, nor signed by him. SRA Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian later apologized for the move and later resigned his post on Marcos; behalf, prompting SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica and SRA board member Roland Beltran to follow suit a few days later. The move also caused Malacañang to instigate reforms within the SRA organization, and launched a campaign into alleged efforts of using the sugar order as a "cover measure" for hoarding by sugar traders.
According to research by Vera Files, Marcos benefited the most from fake news from the Philippines in 2017, along with President Rodrigo Duterte. Most viral news were driven by shares on networks of Facebook pages. Also, most Philippine audience Facebook pages and groups spreading online disinformation bore "Duterte", "Marcos" or "News" in their names and are pro-Duterte.
In July 2020, Brittany Kaiser alleged in an interview that Marcos had approached the controversial firm Cambridge Analytica in order to "rebrand" the Marcos family image on social media. Marcos's spokesperson Vic Rodriguez denied these allegations and stated that Marcos is considering filing libel charges against Rappler, which published Kaiser's interview.
This has resulted in a long-running belief that should Bongbong Marcos win as president, he will give Filipinos a share of this gold. However during his Philippine presidential election campaign in the 2022 elections, when asked over One News to verify the mythical "Tallano gold" or the long-believed tale that they got a share of the Japanese Yamashita gold, Marcos denied knowledge of it, even joking that "people should let him know if they see any of that gold". The urban myth had allegedly been suggested or carried by various social media pages being run by Marcos supporters in order to engage more people to support his presidential bid.
Education
Bongbong Marcos attended Worth Abbey School in England and later studied at the University of Oxford, although he did not graduate. He also enrolled in the University of the Philippines but did not complete his degree.
In summary, while Bongbong Marcos's personal net worth is not clearly defined, his political career and family legacy have significant implications for his financial and social standing.
Marcos first studied at the Institución Teresiana in Quezon City and La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong, where he obtained his kindergarten and elementary education, respectively.
Marcos attended the Center for Research and Communication, where he took a special diploma course in economics, but did not finish. He then enrolled at St Edmund Hall, Oxford to study philosophy, politics and economics (PPE). However, despite his false claims that he graduated with a bachelor of arts in PPE, he did not obtain such a degree. Marcos had passed philosophy, but failed economics, and failed politics twice, thus making him ineligible for a degree. Instead, he received a special diploma in social studies, which was awarded mainly to non-graduates and is currently no longer offered by the university. Marcos still falsely claims that he obtained a degree from the University of Oxford despite Oxford confirming in 2015 that Marcos did not finish his degree.
The next day after his inauguration, Marcos signed a memorandum seeking to provide free train rides to students, and extends the free rides of the EDSA Carousel until the end of December 2022. Twelve days later, on July 13, 2022, Marcos announced that the free train rides will only be limited to students using the LRT Line 2, due to the line's access points to the University Belt.
During the 125th-anniversary celebration of the Philippine Navy, Marcos announced plans to acquire the Philippines' first submarine. The French-based Naval Group, along with other contenders, has offered its Scorpène-class submarines to strengthen the Navy.
In August 2022, despite the low COVID-19 vaccination rate among Filipino students with a total vaccination rate of only 19%, Marcos, along with Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, reopened onsite classes throughout the country, with 46% or 24,000 schools throughout the country reopening their classes on August 22. Meanwhile, 29,721 schools were allowed to continue implementing blended learning from August to October 2022, while the full implementation of onsite classes began within November 2022, with 97.5% of public schools returning to onsite classes, while the remaining 2.36% of classes were temporarily held online due to the effects of Severe Tropical Storm Paeng.
During his 2016 vice presidential campaign, Marcos responded to then-president Benigno Aquino III's criticism of the Marcos regime and call to oppose his election run. He dismissed the events, saying Filipinos should "leave history to the professors." This prompted over 500 faculty, staff and history professors from the Ateneo de Manila University to immediately issue a statement condemning his dismissive retort as part of "an ongoing willful distortion of our history," and a "shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Martial Law regime." More than 1,400 Catholic schools, through the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), later joined the call of the Ateneo faculty "against the attempt of [Marcos] to canonize the harrowing horrors of martial rule." This was also followed by the University of the Philippines Diliman's Department of History, which released a statement of its own, decrying what they called a "dangerous" effort for Marcos to create "myth and deception."
Days after Duterte's allegation, Marcos took a cocaine drug test through a urine sample at St. Luke's Medical Center – Global City and submitted the negative result to law enforcement authorities with a follow-up online memo by the medical institution confirming the legitimacy of the test.
Marcos responded that he did not feel that he was the one alluded to by President Duterte. According to health care provider American Addiction Centers, after the last use, cocaine or its metabolites can show up on a blood or saliva test for up to two days, a urine test for up to three days, and a hair test for months to years. In an interview with CNN Philippines in April 2022, Marcos responded to Duterte's remarks on him being a "spoiled" and "weak leader", saying that the president was "playing politics" and was "always making sure everybody's thinking hard about what they're doing".
