AFP/Manila

The son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos said yesterday his father’s legacy would help rather than hamper his own bid for the vice presidency.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr said his surname was the “greatest blessing”, his first public comments since announcing Monday he would run as an independent next May.
Marcos Sr was accused of large-scale corruption and massive human rights abuses during his tumultuous two decades in office which were ended by a famous 1986 military-backed “people power” revolution.
But his son, popularly known as “Bongbong”, said voters would not be swayed by allegations against his father.
“If you talk to people, they are not concerned about that,” he told reporters.
Filipinos are more worried about poverty, crime and lack of basic infrastructure, which had made commuting in the capital a daily misery formns, he said.
A “lack of leadership” under President Benigno Aquino, whose parents led the opposition against the elder Marcos, had exacerbated these woes, he said.
“This is what people are worried about and this is what I will address,” the 58-year-old senator said.
“What happened in 1986 happened already. These things have already been decided.”
The Marcos family was forced into exile in Hawaii in 1986 and Marcos Sr died there in 1989.
The government accuses the family of stealing $10bn from public coffers, while activists have recorded at least 882 people who went missing during the period of martial law declared by the dictator.
Aquino in 2013 signed a landmark law compensating thousands of human rights victims of the Marcos regime, many of whom were tortured, raped or detained by the dictator’s security forces.
“We may not bring back the time stolen from martial law victims, but we can assure them of the state’s recognition of their sufferings,” Aquino said at the time.
Before being elected to the Senate for a six-year term in 2010, Marcos Jr served as congressman and governor of his father’s home province.
He said his surname had only bolstered his political comeback.
“I am the luckiest person that I know and being a Marcos is part of that... I have never felt it to be a burden. I have only felt it to be an advantage,” he said.
The most recent poll from one of the country’s major research firms showed Marcos running third in the vice presidential race, with 13% saying they would vote for him.
The president and vice-president are elected separately in the Philippines.
Marcos declined to comment on speculation his vice presidential bid was aimed at a bid for the presidency in the following elections in 2022.