In Private, Presidential Interviews: Bongbong Marcos

i don't know how that's the first time i've been asked that question you were exposed to a life of privilege how did this shape the way you are today there's no denying we were very comfortable my parents would never let us forget this is from the people president duterte said you were a spoiled brat and a weak leader what makes you think and believe that you will be the champion for unification i'm not the champion for unification i'm just saying that unification and the unity is a necessary condition [Music] just days before the filipino votes in a hotly contested presidential elections we speak to candidate bongbon marcos in private thank you very much for granting us this interview senator bongbong thank you for having me now counting the days of the election sir well uh after the uh after the easter weekend so now we're back uh doing rallies and going out and uh although the opponent is uh organization uh the the the people on the ground uh to make sure everybody knows what to do about protection essentially but again to to solidify essentially the surveys are very encouraging that's what that's really what we are doing now although we won't stop and i i i i people tell me to take a day off i cannot i'm training but election until the very last day that we can campaign we will campaign you know sir much of who you are today has been largely shaped by your past you were eight years old when you and your family moved into malacanang can you tell us what did you like about living in the presidential palace and were there any downsides seven years old my eighth birthday in the palace i remember my father uh was newly elected president because my birthday is in september at that time so um he took me to school that was the last time that ever happened i suppose uh so yeah seventh uh it was my seventh birthday but our seventh uh my eighth birthday was the first birthday i spent in the palace what was it like um in the beginning it was really it was a much simpler param and it was very uh things weren't so hectic the palace is divided into the uh the private areas and the office areas you must start our dummy study room in the offices of my father et cetera you're in the you're the presidential palace and you always have to be how do you say at the very least presentable because the minute you leave your room you do not know who's going to be there i mean there mean many times that i came out of my room visit that doctor and father go so much yeah we were still small but um you get used to it i mean you get used to the idea that uh the only real area are the private areas the rest the rest is the rest of the palace is an office it was nice what did i like about it you're you're you're a little spoiled when you're in japanese because anything especially as a kid you're very well attended to you're very well cared for but it's a very unusual you know you know but we soon learned very quickly because we had friends now we go to their homes will that be your official residence or like president duterte well the palace is still the official residence to tell you the truth we haven't actually thought about it because i'm planning i i always tell her the planning horizon is until may 9. i guess we'll just have we will just have to uh attend to it when when when but we'll be i will i won't live outside of the palace yes so you don't have to you cannot be too far away okay and all the facilities the communications um so it's your office and you cannot really be very far away you appeared in a movie as yourself in your father's biopic you were a child giving a speech about your dream of becoming a politician well in some interviews you wanted to be a rock star and an astronaut that's right uh um i tended towards mathematics and science so you know astronaut partner at the time we were watching i was watching the preparations for the moon landing moon landing was in 1969 uh so when my father had the state visit to the united states in 1968 uh senator inouye who was a good friend of my father sinalou bunkami and senator inouye asked me what do you want to do while you're in the states my first answer immediately is i want to visit nasa so i know cape canaveral in florida and they took me around and i was like so that was really that was my my my interest my dream and then when i was studying already my young high school level now uh so i did and i've got very very very interested in music only because also in our house because my mother is very musical lagging my music so it was something that was very close to and then i was exactly at that age when i went first one two years 12 years old but we're talking 1969 so rock and roll right you know not in london but with your father or was can you remember a time that you had a disagreement no he's the boss you don't disagree if he tells you to if we because he's always right anyway as far as as far as in our situation advice we will talk more about your family and also politics because the marcos family is back in national politics and how did they do it we will talk about that and more when we return this is in private on cnn philippines [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] you're watching in private with presidential candidate former senator bongbong marcos sir as the only son and namesake of the late former president marcos you were exposed to a life of privilege how did this shape the way you are today well inevitably um you get used i mean of course we there's no denying we were very comfortable and we were very privileged as the the president's children uh but the my parents would never let us forget that this is not this is not yours this is from the people everything we have all the advantages that we have gained any successes that we have achieved and any comfort or privilege that we enjoy comes from the people and that's why you have to serve and so that was well balanced it was very clear to us that we were very very lucky um there was one speech where president duterte said you were a spoiled brat and a weak leader do you want to respond to that yeah uh well i think he was playing politics i think the one thing one of the things we have learned about prd is that he likes to keep everyone on their toes making sure everybody is thinking hard about what they're doing so i think that was one of those instances and so from a privileged life your family was forced out of malacanang during the 1986 people power revolt but how did you explain those events to your children as they were growing up well my children when they started it really happens when they start to read they can read the newspaper already and my children were were born in essentially the 90s so anti-marcos and it's like i gave them idea i gave them the same explanation that my that that my it might it wasn't my parents but my aunts and uncles i remember when my father was sent at president um every day aust marcos marcos marcos i don't know but it was a big big issue it's something that we understood immediately uh and that's the explanation that i gave my my children and how about to a lot of our voters now are more than 50 percent used millennials gen z how about the issue of martial law how would you explain it to them well i think the best people who can explain it to them are the relatives who went through it and we have explained it we've been explaining it for 40 years already and you know i explained it by saying that we have we the situation at the time was dire uh the the we were fighting a war into france we had secessionist movement in the south we have the dissident npa's cpp npa in the in the countryside um and there was something and these were people who wanted to bring down the government and the government had to defend itself uh so that was that was my understand that's always been my understanding of it and i think it was because if you look at the historical record so that's why i think that uh that that that's what that's how i i explained that that was what the yololo had to do uh he felt he had to do that but once in a while and you have also mentioned this against you oh yeah oh i could give you a whole list of thousands hundreds of of instances with that but senator casey i just have to ask you that misinformation is also being attributed casino to your supporters to your online supporters even facebook and twitter they took down hundreds of pages of spamming behavior organic or how do you say about allegations that your supporters have a machinery of this information and when you say organic but those are those are their individual accounts and besides uh i don't know twitter some of these things are you know these are from the united states they don't know what's going on here so maybe they might be mistaken in some instances but again these are individuals uh you know you've seen as a billionaire trolls you show me the place where there are hundreds of trolls sitting in front of a computer spreading fake news doesn't exist but you know if ever trolls that can be directly linked to your campaign or to you there are no trolls we have no trolls okay none not a single one i have been offered a click army i've been offered a troll niko because it's very simple you know what the evolution of that is is because um when i started doing the vlogs which is about we're now up to our 210th something like that um when we started doing the vlogs saw the you know facebook zero because we're all we we got used to working that way um and alamo the most heavy users of of social media are younger younger people my son showed me two clicks it's a troll that's boosted it's not effective anymore sir would you support because it might be pending bills the discussion on committee level that will penalize propagators of fake news or disinformation how do you do it as a policy how do you do it one of the the the greatest advantages of the internet in general not just social media is that it's interactive and it's the uh it's open source if that's what you want to call it so anybody can participate and how do you control that and why would you want to so you it it it has to it is so far self-regulating because there's really it's really very hard for a government to control it seguro zuckerberg can control it but i don't know if we i don't know if we can i don't i don't know if if the even if you you there's the the there's an action that the legislation is always behind technology because it takes time for legislators to understand what the technology really means how it works by which time it has moved on already lagging behind jung so i i don't know i don't know how you will do that i think the only the only defense for everybody is to interact and to read everything don't read one thing you have to be you have to be uh more you have to you have to show a little discretion in in in what you believe in sir next let's talk about your message of unity his aspirations for national unity and a glimpse of his presidency more of that with presidential candidate former senator bongbong marcos when we return [Music] so [Music] we're still with presidential candidate former senator bongbong marcos in private right here on cnn philippines senator so if you want to be a father to the nation people would be interested interested to know how you lead your own household familia marcos i don't know that's the first time i've been asked that question um i don't know how to answer that i of course i think it's we all think it's normal uh and i'm sure it's very it's it's different from everybody else a little at least a little at least a little bit uh but i we we lived a genuinely very perfectly normal life chandra's 27 26 25 so they could pick it up so uh they're just most of most of the time most of the most of their past few years has been them studying because they studied they studied abroad so it's a well with my wife especially it's all work uh she's a lawyer and as most lawyers do they work very hard uh so so-and-so does she and akunaman of course when i was in the when i was in the in in office in governor as governor as uh congressman senator maram in ramaho so that's all that's really what all you ended up doing disciplinarian late night is you can do anything you want let's talk about your mom yes oh uh former first idea about demarcus did she have a say in your decision to run for president this time because when you were just vice president she had a lot to say influenced and for her what does this battle personally mean what would it put it this way my i even my father i don't think would would uh object if i say she's the supreme politician in the family my father is the statesman he's the political genius he's the oldest young mother [Music] my mother can connect with anyone from from from her classmate from i don't know how many years ago to the the the person working in the palenque to gaddafi to the queen of england anything that happens in politics we always ask her what do you think is this a good idea should we should should we do it like this or should we wait or they're lagging and it's and i always almost i can say that i learned something new every time i talk to my mother especially in syria usa i always learn something new and so yes she has always a very big influence on everything as to deciding to to run for the presidency well it was uh of course she was part of the the but it wasn't in the and she's seen it all before so yes she's she she's now she's a little frustrated because you know gusting she's very very very involved in everything that we're doing but the decision was mine i really have to say that the decision was mine of course i consulted everyone whose opinions i i value talking about the women in your life senator anupam if and when you become president and also your sister senator aimee well i'm he will be senator for another three years uh so i'm sure she will continue doing her advocate her advocacies and human interests and you know my i was just discussing this with my wife before coming in and she she's she teaches casey so she considers herself not only a lawyer but she considers herself a teacher and she says that she would like to be able to help even in a especially iona ionian has a public capacity she wants to be independent in the in a sense now she's working privately to help the educational system somehow as an example that i said when i was a governor she that's when she started teaching because she said it would be improper for me to practice in the province because my influence and so i'm sure it will be something in that vein okay and you have said a few times before now when you were asked what's the worst mistake or worse quality of your father nasa he trusted the wrong people and senator saying to be a part of your cabinet and what will you be your basis in choosing the members of your cabinet well number one is competence uh there's no use having hiring somebody who's incompetent young willingness to work for the for to willing to sacrifice because look if you the key to the next administration is going to be the economy the the failure and success of the next will be how we handle the economic situation but as we try to recover or we try to manage kovid and how do we and then the new world covey changed everything so uh the the the managers the economic managers are going to be key the best economic managers are in private are in private life to have asked them to come into government and to uh put their all their assets in a trust or what well however the the system they're going to use is and to give up that very you know that very um uh that very how do you say successful and and and uh life uh is not an easy thing so you just have to trust your instincts also and generally speaking you have to uphold in my case i think it would it's necessary that you have some working experience with that person [Music] they go to the office they make one million dollars one day they go home simply then they have a drink they have dinner they go out watch a movie simply because we're at the endgame of the campaign and at this point president duterte has not yet uh officially endorsed you considering you're running with her with his daughter how do you feel about that i understand uh he is the president and it's a good position for the president to stay above the fray um and i i i think that i mean of course we would love to have him come and and and campaign for us and asia pray you know what was the last service satisfaction rating in the pr this uh what 80 percent which is which means people trust him ok i can see why um as president he preferred to be above it all right um and just make sure that which is what he's doing now is to make sure that the conduct of elections is accountable it's clean is transparent etc etc your opponents some of them have warned of destabilization if you become president do you think there's basis for that and how will you deal with possible destabilization attempts should you win this one should i win will my supporters destabilize so if there's going to be destabilization it'll come from them not from us but that means so that's a funny funny thing assertion to make by them do you see that happening and i don't think so i really don't think so it's uh shampred alum at this stage of the election at this stage of the campaign group fake news the central message of your campaign is unity but the marcos name is still very polarizing until now no what makes you think and believe that you will be the champion for unification i'm not the champion for unification i'm just saying that unification and the unity is a necessary condition for us to be able to achieve all that we want to achieve the champion for unity are filipinos because filipinos have it in their heart already we love each other to love our country now it's just you have to bring uh to that a leadership necessarily okay contacting this is your part you can help us this way you can help us that way and we will support you in this way yes sometimes it's mistaken when i talk about unity when i talk to pakistan to how your message of unity can translate into programs or platforms we'll still have former senator bongbong marcos with us in private here on cnn philippines [Music] [Music] you're watching in private on cnn philippines still with presidential candidate former senator bongbong marcos sir when you become president what will be your first concrete step towards achieving unity it's prices and jobs uh jobs jobs jobs prices prices prices um even when you when you do a survey um about kovid to filipinos concern number one valentrabajo number two how to treat it we weren't really that good yet so we just medically speaking it's all about how to create jobs and where you look at the areas what's the fastest uh first of all the msmes number one andamingnaluge and so i think the government together with the private sector can do something about that and the government in terms of fiscal policy in mataxis holiday amnesty lockdown things like that but a beginner breathing room and then on the private sector uh you mug big financing the other uh area now mobilizing return is agriculture because we really have to do something about our agriculture anyway so drunk i think importation sobriety in production we have to we have to do we have to do go back to doing research we have to support the farmers uh the whole value chain from hybrid from research and development to production of seedlings to livestock dispersal to be giving away a bank namaste uh the other issue experience called being known a governor ago was tourism angbilistan tourism and than tourism but we have to do it we have to do it in another way siguro because airport not indeed so manila is limited in its capacity i think the real capacity 6.57 million passengers a year that's not enough we need to have more we keep talking about 10 million airports another one that uh it's actually something i suggested in a long time is the the like the new deal of fdr during the crash of the of the stock market in 1929 called the new deal where talagang was still an and you need the infrastructure anyway you really need infrastructure we the only segura papalitan nothing is that we have to have a in all of this in all of this you have to have a plan indeed limited resources [Music] we have to be very careful with what little funds we have new taxes you meant because you mentioned about the national debt are you up all for new taxes imposing new taxes depends on what sector in what area but if it's going to be if the brunt of it is going to be felt by the consumer i would i would not be very very partial to that for the simple reason everywhere everywhere you look then our educational system we have to really fix it very very well have to support the teachers more and when i talk about sports not just the swell though it's not just the benefits it's also the training um because he well you know the the technologies the new thinking is moving so quickly you have to you have to be able to the teacher should should have the benefit of that of of of knowing all of that the agency should have scholarship programs like the d.a we have scholarship programs for agronomists and agricultures and hydrologists and experts they have need engineers maybe for the energy side we need for the doj we need the good lawyers we we just we we have to we have to improve the bureaucracy we have to do the quality of the public service what's going to be your program in terms of fighting graft and corruption how will you promote a culture of accountability in government and how will you lead by example in this area well leading by example is very simple you say you don't don't uh do not do not tolerate any kind of for this kind of again at the lower level in the bureaucracies if we improve the efficiency of lower levels at the what will you tell them specifically to change their minds i will not tell them there's no need i will do things um they are not convinced we will convince them but if they're talking about you know it won't be bad for the economy you may obstacle if ever they're gonna put in more investment i think i think those are more political statements than actual economic analysis if you if you ask me because i don't know i suppose there's a uh they feel that maybe etc that it won't be stabilized and they may have a point but we will we we know that the presidential commission on good government was created to go after the ill-god and wealth of the marcos family and their associates should you win as president what will role will the pcgg play strengthen it often corruption give them a bigger budget give them more stuff more than 100 billion pesos in litigation what what can be done with that uh i don't know i i i am not familiar with this the cases i'm not familiar with the cases and that's literally the case to case no those are being strengthened and so how can you expand the functions how can you strengthen it so that instead of directing themselves against demarco says only i mean if i have uh but is just grafting corruption in government and they were they're already there they committed agencies wealth and then you have the compensation loan more than 11 000 martial law victims i know you've been asked about the apology and you already said that you cannot apologize for something that you didn't do pero yo violations the mistakes kaiopoul mismo what are your thoughts about these ill-gotten wealth amassed and human rights violations committed to their work let the courts do their work if a court orders us to do something we will do it so that the courts do the work but in terms of your policy if ever you win um to to against a culture of impunity what will be your policy what culture of impunity in terms maybe a few hindi points in terms of human rights violations again let the courts do their work you know it's it that's the whole thing is that we have to strengthen our institutions uh nagging politicized and institutions nothing because i don't know because that's the system that we have in place we have to strengthen our institutions so that it doesn't matter who is in power for the media coverage the old system was they have a press officer who conducts a regular uh press secretary who conducts regular briefings especially briefing if the president decides to make his own statement that's that i'm always out in public um [Applause] we're doing something else also uh but i don't know why i that they they they they say that because as i said you need a manuka i'm always out in the public so anyway but but like their press conference says from you instead of a presidential spokesman in nepal i i think well i think that's i think it's necessary you there's a difference there's a difference um i this is another idea i mean what's your worst fear in these elections and if ever you win at every level and how confident are you at this point that you're the president who can unify and move the country forward well i'm not confident that i'm going to be the president yet because i do not allow myself to be confident i don't it doesn't matter to me what numbers you show me we're not there yet so we don't stop we keep going put it this way should i be elected should i be lucky enough to be elected then how confident will i be i'm confident that i will work with every iota of my being to make sure that we are working towards unity to unify the country presidential candidate marcos thank you very much for sitting down with us in private i'm bruce cabal and you're watching cnn philippines [Music] you

Channel: CNN Philippines

Views: 5,218,974

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Id: dyqqx67rwAk

Length: 49min 18sec (2958 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/russo_mars]

This is a great and informative interview. Just hear the way he talks, and compare it with other presidential candidates. No wonder he's leading the surveys!