Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was 28 years old when a helicopter whisked his family from the Philippines' presidential palace as millions of protesters demanded the ouster of his dictator father in a historic "people power" revolution.
Just over 36 years later, the son is celebrating a landslide victory in a presidential election, an extraordinary comeback for a family once best known for widespread human rights abuses and the plunder of an estimated $10 billion.
Marcos' share of the vote from Monday's election was double that of his nearest rival according to an unofficial election commission tally. The results — largely deemed legitimate, unlike the last election held during his father's martial law rule — left some of the original people power activists dejected and confused. "We said in 1986, 'Never again,'" said Florencio Abad, who was among the millions of protesters who swarmed the streets of Manila back then and later became a member of the cabinet. "How did they manage to come back?"
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