Biden calls Bongbong Marcos to congratulate him on presidential win, questions about contempt order in U.S. go unanswered

Coconuts Manila
·2 min read

Having garnered over 31 million votes and nearly 60 percent of the ballots cast, the victory of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Monday’s presidential election seems inevitable, even though the official canvassing of votes has yet to conclude.

With Marcos Jr. presumed to be the winner of the election, world leaders are already lining up to congratulate him — including US President Joe Biden, who gave the presumptive president-elect a call yesterday morning, Marcos spokesman Vic Rodriguez confirmed.

The White House also confirmed that a call between Biden and Marcos Jr took place in a statement.

“President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today today with President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines to congratulate him on his election. President Biden underscored that he looks forward to working with the President-elect to continue strengthening the U.S.-Philippine Alliance, while expanding bilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues, including the fight against COVID-19, addressing the climate crisis, promoting broad-based economic growth, and respect for human rights.”

Marcos Jr.’s win marks a historic comeback for the Marcos’ family image after the 1986 People Power Revolution toppled his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his 21-year regime.

Biden’s courtesy call with the presumptive president-elect marks an interesting development in the Marcoses’ history with the United States. Bongbong, in particular, faces a standing contempt order in the US worth US$353 million issued by the District Court of Hawaii in 2011 for not answering a judgement against Marcos Sr in a 1995 human rights class action lawsuit.

As executors of Marcos Sr.’s estate, Marcos Jr. and his mother Imelda are liable.

Marcos Jr.’s spokesman Rodriguez ignored questions by Rappler reporters on the presumptive president-elect’s standing contempt order, asking how Marcos Jr. would be able to travel to the United States even as chief diplomat.

Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting

Latest Stories

  • Are flagrant fouls more common this postseason? Why are there so many reviews? Explaining NBA officiating

    What’s a flagrant? Is it a Flagrant 2? What happened to the hard playoff foul, to reasonably stop a player from scoring on a touch foul and going for a 3-point play?

  • Garcia gets more votes in 2022 general elections than in 2019 midterm polls

    CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia exceeded the votes she received in the 2019 midterm elections after she got more than 500,000 votes in this year’s general election.The four-time governor was proclaimed winner on Tuesday, May 10, a day after the elections, after securing a historic 80.80 percent of the votes or 1,478,436 votes, beating former tourism secretary Joseph Felix Mari “Ace” Durano, who garnered only 18.66 percent of the votes or 341,155 votes, and Nito Magnanao, who got 0.53 percent or 9,812

  • Gunman kills 10 in live-streamed racial attack at supermarket in Buffalo

    An 18-year-old white gunman shot 10 people to death and wounded three on Saturday at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood of upstate New York, before surrendering after what authorities called an act of "racially motivated violent extremism." Authorities said the suspect, who was armed with an assault-style rifle and appeared to have acted alone, drove to Buffalo from his home several hours away to launch the afternoon attack that he broadcast in real time on social media platform Twitch, a live video service owned by Amazon.com. Court papers named the suspect as Payton Gendron of Conklin, a town of about 5,000 people in New York's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border.

  • World leaders descend on UAE to pay respects to late ruler

    An array of presidents and prime ministers continued to descend on the United Arab Emirates Sunday from around the world to pay their respects to the federation's late ruler. The first Western leader to jet to the oil-rich emirate was French President Emmanuel Macron. A high-profile American delegation led by Vice President Kamala Harris is due to visit the UAE on Monday, a bid to ease tensions and show support as relations between the countries have strained under President Joe Biden.

  • Three talking points from the Premier League

    The Premier League title, a place in next season's Champions League and the battle for survival are all alive heading into the final week of the season.

  • Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker have reportedly got officially married!

    Congrats (again) to these two!

  • EXPLAINER: In first 50 days, Mayor Rama to fulfill 9 of 21 promises. He may also do what rival Margot O. vowed to do: 'fix' City Hall, take out deadwood and corrupt, overhaul system to run the house efficiently. Plus, for Mike: remove traitors who 'stabbed me in the back.'

    AMID the thanksgiving and merriment Sunday, May 15, after a convincing win in the elections, reelected Mayor Michael Rama broke away from script and normal celebratory mood to warn party-mates and supporters it wouldn't be business as usual at Cebu City Hall.In Cebuano-Bisaya, Mayor Mike chided jobseekers, casual employees, and other favor-hunters depending on the City Government for income that bootlicking ("sipsipizing") wouldn't assure continuity.CONSIDER BEING WARNED. Rama said "if you are t

  • PH adds 9 more gold medals in SEA Games

    THE Philippines added nine more gold medals in the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam over the weekend.Olympian Ernest Obiena won the gold in the Men’s Pole Vault after setting a SEA Games record of 5.40 meters. Another Olympian, Carlos Yulo bagged his second gold medal after topping the Men’s Artistic Floor event in Gymnastics, beating Singapore’s Terry Wei-An Tay and Vietnam’s Trinh Hai Khan. Kim Mangrobang also won her second gold in the tournament after dominating the Women’s Indivi

  • ‘Cult leader’ nabbed for interrupting Mass in Barili

    A 46-YEAR-OLD “cult leader” was arrested after he shouted loudly while a Mass was ongoing in Barangay Mantalongon, Barili, Cebu Sunday afternoon, May 15, 2022.Police Major Felicisimo Aranas identified the suspect as Jerome Villarin, a faith healer and resident of Sitio Tagatay Barangay Vito, Barili, Cebu.Aranas told SunStar Cebu that around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, a concerned citizen called up to report that more or less 20 cult members were in the vicinity of the Mantalangon Parish Church.He said whe

  • League of Legends Challenges: Everything you need to know about this new system

    The game's new Challenges system was introduced into the game in Patch 12.9 and is designed to 'provide meaningful progression to all League players'.

  • What a priest told Bongbong Marcos

    ON OCT. 22, 2021, a picture of then presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos being anointed by a well-known priest in Cebu went viral on social media.Msgr. Roberto Alesna, parish priest of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Sta. Teresa de Avila Parish in Talisay City, received heavy criticism for the act from people he knew and didn’t know, in public comments and in private messages.To them, he had breached the constitutional provision on the inviolability of the separation of the Church and State, and th

  • Carlos Yulo leads charge as PH jostles with Thailand for 2nd place in medal standings of Hanoi SEA Games

    CHAMPION gymnast Carlos Yulo continued his stellar showing in the 31st Southeast Asian Games as he won gold medals in the floor exercise and rings events of the gymnastics competition at the Quan Ngua Sports Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam.As a matter of fact, gymnastics gave the Philippines’ campaign a boost as Fil-American Aleah Finnegan added the women’s vault gold to Team Philippines’ harvest, scoring her second victory after leading the women’s squad to the team title last Saturday, on top of a si

  • CBM 2022 launches 6 months of business activities

    ORGANIZERS of the annual Cebu Business Month (CBM) 2022 has outlined several business activities for six months starting June to make known that Cebu is back to business, stronger than before.Anchored on the theme, “Go Cebu!” with the tagline “Realign, Reinforce, Rebuild,” this year’s CBM 2022 envisions to help make businesses strong so it could create jobs and make a stronger local economy.“As we are all witnessing a transition into a post-pandemic society, we are inviting you to further Cebu’s

  • 9 Cebu areas under Alert Level 1 on May 16-31

    THE Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases has placed nine areas in Cebu Island under Alert Level 1, the lowest quarantine status in the country, from May 16 to 31, 2022.Under Level 1 are the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, and the towns of Alcoy, Borbon, Oslob, Pilar, Santander, and Tudela in Cebu Province. In Central Visayas, under the same level are the province of Siquijor; and the towns of Calape, Garcia Hernandez, San Isidro, and San Miguel in Bohol; and Baco

  • Paragliding in Oslob suspended after foreigner's death

    THE paragliding activity in Sitio Canan-aw, Barangay Poblacion, Oslob town, southern Cebu has been suspended.Maria Lester "Marty" Ybañez, head of the Cebu Provincial Tourism Office, said the suspension was made following an incident Sunday morning, May 15, that claimed that life of American paraglider Peter Clifford Humes, 63, an education and safety director of Paraglide Tandem International, which has branches in New Jersey, USA and Bangkok, Thailand.According to Ybañez, pilot error caused Hum

  • Robredo and daughters greeted by throng of supporters at JFK airport

    The Robredos flew in to attend Jillian’s graduation from NYU on May 18

  • Tapales destroys Estrella in California

    FORMER world champion Marlon Tapales made quick work of Mexican journeyman Jose Estrella after knocking him out in two rounds last Sunday, May 15 (PH time), at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.The 30-year-old Tapales unleashed a vicious body shot that dropped Estrella to the canvas. Estrella tried to stand up but was counted out by referee Ray Corona at the 1:39 mark of the second round.Tapales won his third straight fight and improved to 36-3 with 19 knockouts.The 32-year-ol

  • Basketball takes over social media, NBA Playoffs locks in ‘Final Four’

    It’s an exciting time for basketball fans in Metro Cebu. Not long after Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks demolished the Phoenix Suns in their Game 7 matchup on May 16 (PH time), fans took to social media already sharing how they felt about the Mavs’ chances in the next—and last round—before the NBA Finals.Waiting for Dončić and the Mavericks? The battle-tested Golden State Warriors led by the half-court, do-it-all trio of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.Much to the delight of b

  • CLI to pour P8B in fresh capital for Cebu projects

    PROPERTY developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) is pouring in an estimated P8 billion in fresh investments for Cebu this year.During the first quarter investors’ and analysts’ briefing on Monday, May 16, 2022, Jose Franco Soberano, the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said this new investment will finance three projects in Cebu—a P2 billion residential project in Danao, P4 billion mixed-use Pristina North project and P2 billion residential development in Casuntingan

  • Comelec initiates investigation on 'faulty' vote counting machines

    THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has initiated the conduct of a probe into defective vote counting machines (VCMs) following the May 9 national and local elections and even before President Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncement.“Even before the pronouncement of the President, we already initiated the investigation of the VCMs. In fact, the national tech support center was already reviewing the tickets... inannounce po ni Comelec Commissioner (Marlon) Casquejo na nag-meeting po ang project managem