Imee, finally showing up as Alyansa bet, denies rift with bro
LAOAG CITY—After playing coy about her plans for the May elections, Sen. Imee Marcos appeared at the rally here on Tuesday as one of the 12 senatorial candidates of the administration, using the event to dispel rumors of a long-standing feud between her and her younger brother, the President.
Until her attendance at the rally that kicked off the 90-day campaign period for the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas ticket, the reelectionist senator has been conspicuously absent in its gatherings since her brother announced the lineup in September last year.
‘Maybe you are confused’
She has also not appeared in TV ads promoting the slate, further fueling speculations about the rift.
The senator has also been known for being close to Vice President Sara Duterte, whose soured relations with President Marcos continue to get worse. Duterte’s impeachment on Feb. 5 has further raised the stakes in the senatorial race, which is seen shaping the composition of the impeachment court that will hear the complaints against the Vice President.
Speaking almost entirely in Ilocano before thousands of supporters, Senator Marcos said it was just “normal” for family members to have misunderstandings.
Not in transcript
“Sometimes they say I figured in a fight with my brother,” Marcos said. “Maybe you are confused because my brother and I never had a fight. It hurts me when they say I fight him.”
“I’m just giving him reminders because I don’t want my brother to get hurt. I am a Marcos. Our President is a Marcos,” she said, drawing applause from the family’s hometown crowd.
The senator’s office later provided the media with a Filipino version of her speech, but it did not contain the parts where she spoke about her misunderstandings with her sibling.
Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, the Alyansa campaign manager, earlier dismissed speculations that Marcos would be replaced in the ticket for issuing statements critical of the administration, including moves to unseat Duterte.
Marcos also failed to enter the so-called Magic 12 in recent surveys ahead of the start of the 90-day official campaign period.
The senator had yet to speak publicly about the Vice President’s rants against the President in November, where she said she had contacted someone to have Mr. Marcos, his wife Liza, and Speaker Martin Romualdez—a cousin of the Marcos siblings—killed should an alleged plot to kill Duterte succeed.
