The last time a controversial Marcos announced victory in a Philippine presidential

election, it was a remnant of a victory so tainted by fraud and pure greed that it sparked a
democratic revolution. Thirty-six years later, the second-biggest democracy brought Ferdinand
‘Bongbong’ Marcos to the presidential palace from which he fled along with the late dictator into
exile. And those who fought for democracy in the 1986 ‘people power’ revolution, and who
fought to protect the achievements of the movement since then, are left in massive horror. Now,
the ultimate question is, what does Social contract mean under a popular Bongbong Marcos
Presidency.
The concept of social contract theory as discussed in Laskar 2013 summary stated that in
the beginning man lived in the state of nature. There was no government and law to regulate
disastrous affairs. There were privation and oppression on the sections of the society. To
overcome from these suffering the people set foot into two agreements which are: Pactum
Unionis and Pactum Subjection’s. In the first pact of unionis, people sought the protection of
their lives and property. This resulted in a formation of a society where people pledge to respect
each other and live-in peace and harmony. By the second pact of subjectionis, people united
together and pledged to obey an authority and surrendered their freedom and rights. The
authority assured everyone the protection of life, property, and to a certain extent their liberty.
Consequently, each must agree to establish society by collectively and reciprocally renouncing
the rights they had against one another in the State of Nature and they must imbue some one or
an assembly of persons with the authority and power to enforce the initial contract. To be
specific, to ensure their escape from the State of Nature, each must both agree to live together
under common laws and create an enforcement mechanism for the social contract and the laws
that constitute it. Thus, the authority of the government; the sovereign or the state came into
being because of the two agreements.
According to the official gazette’s feature of the “Fall of the Dictatorship’s”, the swell of
student radicalization and increasing number of violent demonstrations, Marcos manipulated
middle-class fears and used these to justify the imposition of Martial Law on September 23,
1972, by Proclamation No. 1081. Martial Law was not just an invocation of the President’s
emergency powers under the 1935 Constitution—Marcos went further to assume all governing
powers, excluded civilian courts, and systematically replaced the 1935 Constitution with the
1973 Constitution for his benefit to remain in power despite the call for an end of his abusive and
corrupt regime. Thus, the replacement of the Constitution was done under dubious
circumstances including the government’s use of communist and secessionist threats as
justification for Martial Law which only contributed to the growth of the political opposition and
the amassing of recruits to the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) in the provinces in the 1970s. The Late dictator’s regime guaranteed good
governance in exchange for the Presidential position possessing the authority to rule and protect
the state only for it to gradually become a brutal horror of the time. In Hobbes's social contract
Theory he asserted that without subjection to a common power of their rights and freedoms, men
are necessarily at war. Locke, on the contrary, set forth the view that the state exists to preserve
and protect the natural rights of its citizens. If the government fails their responsibility, citizens
have the right and sometimes the duty to withdraw their support and even to rebel. Thus, Locke's
view of the contract reflected the People power revolution ousting the horrors of the late dictator
for good supposedly but the fame of Rodrigo Duterte gave rise to the return of the late dictator’s
son attached with false promises and denial of a well-fought history to regain a hopeless name.
According to Hobbes's views, whatever the state does is just. All of society is a direct
creation of the state and a reflection of the will of the ruler. But to Locke, the only important role
of the state is to ensure that justice is seen to be done. However, the 2022 Election reflected none
of Locke’s important roles, justice is the least of the current government and the majority’s
priority nor the stability of the country under 63. 5% debt rather than a contract of false and
pretentious promises of unity was made in exchange for saving a corrupt name in the face of the
continuity of what was once a golden age in the Philippines. The win of another Marcos is
indeed a reflection of a failed Social contract fought by the people's power revolution and of the
Aquino’s promise of democracy. The rise of Bongbong Marcos was the call of an institution’s
failure to truly fulfill its duty and to responsibly educate the masses. Moreover, Locke also saw
the need for people to cede their right to political authority to a civilian government that would
settle property disputes and thus preserves their wealth as well as their life, liberty, and well-
being. But according to Locke, the people could revolt against political authority if the
government breaks its contract with the people by becoming a tyranny. If proven that the current
Marcos presidency’s intention is only to serve their tainted name instead of the people’s well-
being then their promise of unity will set its end the same way his father was sent into exile by
the people. Although according to CNN news, the president’s sister, a convicted murderer of a
late PUP student made a statement regarding their family’s priority of clearing the legacy of the
late dictator. The revelation became a frustrating issue to educate the majority due to the strong
influence of fake news in the country because the rest situated to be ignorant.
Consequently, the win of Bongbong Marcos is a victory of a cheat and a consistent liar, a
victory done through massive funding of fake news supported by our digital age and their old
cronies. There is no social contract between Bongbong Marcos and the people similar to the first
pact of unions, the protection of lives and property where there is respect and harmony in society
when the elected president himself is the son of the late dictator who was aware of his family’s
killings, cheating, and corruption and had his statement published on the newspaper when he was
a governor, accusing that the victims of martial law were only after the money. By the second
pact of subjectionis in Social contract theory, the people united and pledged to obey an authority
and surrendered their freedom and rights in exchange for the protection of life, property, and
liberty. Unfortunately, the people have unconsciously surrendered themselves under another
Marcos who couldn’t even win the election with both integrity and excellence as a candidate.
People have surrendered their lives in the hands of men who need not protect anyone’s well-
being because they are the murderers themselves. There’s no murderer, cheat, and corrupt who
would want to accept criticism and would allow a revolt against them. The social contract in
another Marcos presidency is defined by what would benefit them best than the welfare of the
people.
 To be fair, we must respect the sovereign. In our modern democracies, sovereign power
rests with the people. But this is dangerous in the sense that the majority had been repetitively
moved by false promises. For instance, in the Social Contract theory, it was mentioned that the
right of the people must be protected from foreign invaders. In Locke’s view, did he not question
the logic and fairness of a landowner owning more land than he can till. Hence, in this context,
the government instead of protecting the rights of the people is the first to violate them. the
question is, will the son of the dictator who denied the aristocracies of his father would seek
measures to redefine the lapses in our existing Social contract. Would he redefine the contract in
terms of the burden of taxes knowing the current digit of our minimum wage, and knowing that
he, the president himself, is a convicted tax evader who faked his tax receipts straight to the
Comelec’s faces. Moreover, Article 14 Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states “The
State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall
take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.” However, state universities like
the University of the Philippines are in danger of militarization and continue to be less accessible
due to budget cuts and red-tagging threats from the government officials and the state that
lessens the quality of the said free education. For something so valuable as education, quality,
accessibility, and safety of the students that was mandated by our social contract to be neglected
isn’t that enough grounds for ousting the previous and current government. The number of
enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, collateral damages, militarization in Indigenous
People’s communities, and countless other human rights violations is growing; and is said to be
continued in the hands of Bongbong Marcos presidency.

References
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