Even before becoming the highest official of the country, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — commonly known as “Bongbong” — had been on an electoral journey that began during his late father’s presidency.

In his education years, Bongbong finished his kindergarten and elementary years at Institucion Teresiana and La Salle Green Hills, respectively. For his secondary education, Bongbong was sent to the United Kingdom and where he studied at Worth School, an all-boys school in West Sussex, England.

In 1975, he matriculated at Oxford University for a BA in Philosophy and Economics but wasn’t able to complete the degree. According to the institution, he was awarded a special diploma in social studies in 1978 instead.

To pursue further studies, Bongbong took up an MA in Business Administration at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, in the US but he also did not finish.

In 1981, the 23-year-old Bongbong was elected vice governor of his home province of Ilocos Norte and from 1983 to 1986 he served as its governor.

In 1992, after his family’s return from exile, he became Ilocos Norte’s 2nd district representative and succeeded as governor from 1998 to 2007.

In 2007, he was again elected to Congress where he was Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and in the Senate chaired the Committee on Local Government and the Committee on Public Works in 2010.

Bongbong eyed the vice presidency in 2016, but was defeated by human rights lawyer Leni Robredo by a 200,000-vote margin.

The two faced off again in the 2022 presidential elections.

DA chief

Riding on a wave of nostalgia for his family’s past governance and his political achievements, he won the presidential election with a substantial majority. His victory was widely regarded as a dramatic resurgence of the Marcos family to the pinnacle of Philippine power.

As president, Marcos Jr. has faced the challenge of addressing the country’s pressing issues, including its economic recovery, social inequality, and political polarization.

His presidency is also viewed through the lens of his family’s historical legacy, with critics and supporters alike closely watching his administration’s policies and effectiveness.

In his first one-hour and 14-minute State of the Nation Address (SoNA), PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) highlighted his administration’s agenda, focusing mainly on economic recovery, food security, the pandemic and calamity response, infrastructure and transportation, digitalization, foreign policy, and legislation.

Moreover, carrying the banner of “Bagong Pilipinas,” PBBM said farmers and fishermen will be the priority of his administration, envisioning the agriculture sector as “one of the main drivers of our push for growth and employment.”

In his SoNA, he outlined his leadership goals, which included boosting agricultural output, improving agricultural infrastructure, providing support to farmers, and modernizing the sector.

In his early months as president-elect, he announced he would lead the Department of Agriculture (DA), as he thought “the problem is severe enough” to take on the agriculture portfolio.

“I thought it [was] important that the president take that portfolio not only to make it clear to everyone what a high priority we put on the agri-sector but also as a practical matter so that things would move quickly because the events of the global economy were moving very quickly,” he said.

PBBM led the Department of Agriculture for over a year until November 2023, when he appointed Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. of Frabelle Fishing Corporation — described by Marcos as a longtime friend and someone who understood the challenges facing the agriculture sector — as DA secretary.

Steady growth

“I am confident in appointing Laurel because I know his personality. I know he works very hard, first of all. Second, he understands well the agricultural system here in the Philippines. So, I am expecting that he will do a good job,” PBBM said.

Last February, the longtime friends met with farmers and local government leaders in Pampanga for the distribution of over P22 million worth of farm inputs and equipment, rice seeds, fertilizer vouchers, post-harvest facilities, and financial capital to farmers’ cooperatives and hog repopulation addressing the challenges posed by the African swine fever.