Presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was a guest at the Chinese Embassy in Manila, photos shared by Beijing's envoy on Wednesday showed.
Marcos, the only son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was accompanied by his wife Liza, and his cousin, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the photo wall in the Chinese Embassy.
The photos, according to Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, showed "historic moments of China-Philippines relations" including a photo of former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and late dictator Marcos signing the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Beijing and Manila on June 9, 1975.
"While always cherish and honor old friends, we hope that more and more people from our two countries will be committed to deepening our partnership and cooperation, so as to bring more benefits to our two peoples and pass on our traditional friendship from generation to generation," the Chinese envoy said.
Ties between the Philippines and China blossomed again under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who Marcos Jr. is eyeing to succeed.
A frontrunner in presidential polls, Marcos Jr. is seeking to revive his family name by running for president in 2022 even as the government has yet to recover billions of funds stolen from state coffers during his late father's nearly three-decade rule that is marked as one of the darkest periods in Philippine history.
READ: How Bongbong Marcos is Riding the Strongman Template to Malacanang
It would be Marcos Jr.'s second attempt at a national post after losing the vice presidency in 2016 to Leni Robredo--who is also running for president in 2022.
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