UniTeam has no cracks

Senator Imee Marcos dismissed rumors of a falling out between President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte, who formed a formidable alliance as the 'UniTeam' during the previous year's elections."

In a chance interview, the presidential sister said her brother's alliance with Duterte and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, remains "solid."

"I believe that the principals — my brother and me, the vice president and PRRD — will never fall apart," she told reporters. "I think there are just some who are causing trouble."

When asked to whom she was referring, Senator Marcos said: "I don't know. You are the ones in the Congress. You listen to various departments. You monitor, we just read it in the news."

President Marcos said Tuesday Vice President Duterte does not deserve to be impeached, ending the reported efforts to oust the younger Duterte.

"We are monitoring it closely because we don't want her to be impeached," he said. "She does not deserve to be impeached, so we will make sure that this is something we will pay very close attention to."

Duterte said she believed she still had the trust of President Marcos.

"We're okay," she said in an interview. "I believe that I still have the trust of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr."

Duterte, however, acknowledged the reported impeachment effort against her in the House of Representatives.

The decision by the lower house to deprive the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, which Duterte heads, of confidential funds in the coming year sparked the talk of impeachment.

This did not sit well with former president Duterte, who called the lower chamber the "most rotten organization."

Earlier this month, Speaker Martin Romualdez took an indirect swipe at the former president, saying he would "stand and fight against anyone who scares us into following what they want."

The lower chamber also condemned Duterte for threatening the life of ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro, whom he linked to the communist New People's Army.

The following day, the House leadership stripped former president, now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Davao City Representative Isidro Ungab of the deputy speakerships.

Arroyo and Ungab are both allies of Duterte.

Jom Garner @tribunephl_jom