Bongbong Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was twenty-eight and vice governor of Ilocos Norte when the People Power Revolution drove his family into Hawaiian exile in 1986. He returned in 1991, the first Marcos back after his father's dictatorship fell, and worked his way through local office, Congress, and the Senate over three decades. He lost the 2016 vice presidency to Leni Robredo by a narrow margin, contested it, and watched a recount widen her lead by fifteen thousand votes. Six years later he won the presidency with 59% - the largest margin since his father's boycotted 1981 landslide - while declining to debate and running on a coalition with Rodrigo Duterte's daughter. As president he's pivoted Philippine foreign policy back toward the United States, banned offshore gaming operations, and now faces a corruption scandal, an impeachment drive against his vice president, and an outstanding US court order for $353 million in human rights restitution his family has never paid.