Teves speciously argued that the airport should bear the Marcos name because the idea for transforming a former US military facility into an international hub was hatched during his administration. “It is more appropriate to bear the name [of the person who] has contributed…to make the Philippines a center of international and domestic air travel,” he said, proposing the new name to be Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport.

For the change to occur, Teves’s bill will have to pass in the Philippine house and senate and be approved by the president. Philippine airport officials will also need to register the new name with the international transport associations, and spend millions to update the signage and markings in the process, as Las Vegas did when it rebranded its local airport to honor the late senator Harry Reid.

Anti-Marcos factions are already questioning the premise of Teves’s bill. For instance, Rappler, the local watchdog media outlet, points out the airport was constructed years before Marcos was elected into office. Many Filipinos who lived through the Marcos regime are expressing dismay on social media. Several are in favor of reverting back to the original name—Manila International Airport—to disassociate it from the country’s tumultuous political history.

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