PBBM legacy? Service, staying true to principles

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City to deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28, 2025. (Mark Balmores)

With only two years remaining in his presidency, President Marcos hopes to leave a legacy of service while staying true to his principles.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Marcos was asked what he hopes people to take away from his years in office.

“That I served. That I was true to my principles of, again, duty, honor, country,” Marcos said in the interview uploaded on YouTube on May 29.

He wanted to be remembered as the president who “served with honor.”

“History has always kind of been the contemporary. When it’s written, I hope that shines through. I wanted to serve because it’s my duty. And I served with honor. And I served my country,” Marcos said.

‘I have to be different’

Being the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who served for 20 years and whose rule later evolved into a dictatorship, Marcos said he had the advantage of observing his father in office and learned early on that “it was going to be difficult.”

However, he said he needed to be a different president from his father.

“I have to be. It’s a different time. There are fundamental lessons that I still hold close to my heart. But in terms of the practical things that you do, very few of those things apply any longer,” Marcos said.

The President noted that the nature of the job has not changed, but what changed was the “issues that you worry about.”

“The nature of the job really is not different. You have a great deal of work to do. All of it is fairly urgent. Everything is important. That has not really changed. It’s the things that you worry about, the issues that you worry about. Those have changed,” he said. — Betheena Unite