Bangkok: The son of the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos has announced he will run for vice-president at next year's elections amid concerns the political succession could derail one of Asia's fastest-growing economies.
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Ferdinand Marcos jnr, 58, said he has decided to put his future "in the hands of the Filipino people" despite billions of dollars looted by his father before he fled the country in 1986 never having been recovered.
Modest estimates put Marcos snr's purloined wealth at about $US10 billion ($14 billion), less than half of which has been located by asset-recovery investigators.
The disgraced ruler who died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 was reviled by many Filipinos, including thousands of political opponents jailed under his repressive regime.
But the election of Mr Marcos jnr, who is known as "Bongbong", to the Philippines' second most powerful position would crown the Marcos family's return to power in a country that has been ruled by political dynasties for decades.
His 86-year-old mother, Imelda – famous for her extravagant lifestyle, including hundreds of pairs of shoes – was elected a congresswoman in 1995 and again in 2010 and her eldest child, Imee, 59, is a provincial governor.
Announcing his candidature, Mr Marcos jnr railed against the "politics of personality" that he said had turned the Philippines into "a soft state where the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, graft is endemic ... injustice is the norm".
Mr Marcos did not mention his father, who ruled the Philippines for two decades before millions of people took to the streets in a "people power" revolution that forced him into exile.
He has rebuffed calls to acknowledge the abuses that were committed during his father's rule.
Mrs Marcos, who returned from her exile in 1991, has beaten all charges brought against her over the plunder of the country's wealth which some investigators put as high as $US60 billion.
Corazon Aquino, who replaced Mr Marcos as president, set up a quasi-judicial agency called the Presidential Commission on Good Governance, to recover the ill-gotten wealth accumulated by the Marcos regime.
But the agency was wound down in 2013 with what observers said was little inkling of the true value of the wealth.
Stories have circulated for decades, some documented in court proceedings, of the elder Marcos seizing a massive golden Buddha from a treasure hunter in 1971 and hiding away other priceless spoils of the Japanese Imperial Army's World War II ransacking of south-east Asia.
Under the Philippines' constitution President Benigno Aquino, who is in his second term, cannot contest elections next May, opening the way to a field of figures from political clans and film celebrities.
Under Mr Aquino the country has seen economic growth of more than 6 per cent on average, its best five-year result in four decades.
He has also battled to curb endemic corruption.
President Aquino is the only son of the late Mr Marcos' nemesis, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino jnr, who was assassinated in 1983.
A leading candidate for the presidency is first-term senator Grace Poe, 47, whose adoptive father, an action movie hero, failed to win office at an election more than a decade ago.
Mr Aquino in July anointed Interior Minister, Manuel Roxas, as his preferred successor.
