After 9 May

The Marcos-Duterte victory

Mr. Bongbong Marcos and his running mate Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio won the recent elections by a landslide, and are set to take office as President and Vice President of the Philippines, respectively. They weren’t my choice, I didn’t vote for them, but their victory is a bare fact.

Explaining their victory will fall to others far wiser and more intelligent than me. Instead, I wanted to reflect on some things I learned from their supporters.

Even before elections on 9 May, I’d already thought about likely scenarios. The most likely outcome, I thought at the time, was a landslide Marcos-Duterte victory. I made peace with it as a possibility. Now I’ll have to make peace with it as a fact.