The public display of vigor by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. suggests a return to a familiar script — one long perfected by his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who understood early that strength, if staged well enough, could pass for authority.

Marcos Sr. was not shy about it. He was photographed swimming, exercising, and, in more than a few carefully circulated images, going shirtless — proof, or at least suggestion, that the President could outlast both critics and time itself.

The message was simple: strong body, strong rule. It did not stop at photographs.

During Martial Law, the image was institutionalized. Marcos and wife Imelda were cast as “Malakas at Maganda,” the mythological first couple, courtesy of commissioned works such as Evan Cosayco’s painting that rendered Marcos as the muscular Malakas and Imelda as Maganda — an origin story, conveniently aligned with the “Bagong Lipunan.”

The symbolism spread, quite literally, across walls and state spaces. Variations of the Malakas at Maganda motif appeared in Marcos-era art and installations, while related nationalist imagery found its way into cultural venues and public institutions, ensuring that the mythology was not merely seen but absorbed.

Historians would later call it what it was: a carefully constructed cult of personality, where strength was less a fact than a theme, repeated often enough to feel real.

That the elder Marcos maintained this projection even as his health declined only underscored the point — vigor, once established, need not be proven, only performed.

Which brings us back to the son.

Marcos Jr.’s gym challenge, offered in response to rumors about his health, may sound spontaneous, even playful. But it carries echoes — of a time when leadership came with visuals, when strength was demonstrated not just in policy but in posture.

Whether intentional or instinctive, the resemblance is hard to miss — and if history is any guide, the next move may well be a public clamor for Marcos Jr. to show his abs, just as his father so often did.

Game?