Imee told: Pick brother or friend
- Reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos should finally choose between her younger brother, President Marcos, and her friend, Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin.
- Garin noted that the senator has been hemming and hawing between supporting her brother and the Vice President, whom the senator described as a “close friend.”
- But in October 2024, the Vice President threatened to have the remains of the senator’s deceased father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., from the Libingan ng mg Bayani and have them thrown in the West Philippine Sea if the House of Representatives did not stop its probe of the Vice President’s spending of public funds.
It’s time for reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos to finally choose between her younger brother, President Marcos, and her friend, Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin.
“I believe it’s time for the senator to really decide,” Garin, a physician and former health secretary said on Friday.
“Whatever she chooses, so long as it’s just one stance, people will respect and believe [her] more. This would also allow her to take her campaign in a clearer direction,” Garin said.
Garin noted that the senator has been hemming and hawing between supporting her brother and the Vice President, whom the senator described as a “close friend.”
Exhumation
But in October 2024, the Vice President threatened to have the remains of the senator’s deceased father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., from the Libingan ng mg Bayani and have them thrown in the West Philippine Sea if the House of Representatives did not stop its probe of the Vice President’s spending of public funds.
The House, which Duterte said was full of unprincipled opportunists, was impeached for the alleged misuse of P600 million in funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
Imee again supported Duterte and said an impeachment trial would only lead to chaos and destabilization.
Nonetheless, the senator was still included in the Marcos administration’s senatorial slate for the May election.
When the Marcos administration surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court for the thousands of extrajudicial killings, mostly of unconvicted suspects in drug cases, Imee again expressed support for the impeached Vice President’s family.
“I cannot bear what was done to [former President Rodrigo Duterte],” the senator said in a social media post. She has not expressed remorse for the thousands of people who were killed during Duterte’s war on drugs.
Imee then skipped a campaign sortie, led by Mr. Marcos himself, in the hometown of the senator’s mother and namesake, former first lady Imelda Marcos, and the senator’s cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez, with whom the senator has also had a falling out.
Big dilemma
For Garin, it was not a matter of family values, but of politics.
“I think her problem is having to balance herself and her politics,” Garin said. “I personally believe that politics means taking a stand, going with what you believe and joining the group that you believe in.”
“But in her case, she’s said a lot of things about the programs of the current administration, while also joining the Alyansa headed by the President: that’s a deadly combination,” Garin said.
Garin speculated that the senator “could not afford to lose the votes of the Duterte supporters … so if she is seen with the Alyansa slate with everything going on now, she might lose their vote.”
“But if she’s openly defending the former president, then she would lose the support of Alyansa,” Garin said. “That is her big dilemma.”
