Imee rues BBM’s cordon sanitaire

Senator Imee Marcos on Saturday admitted the cold ties with her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and said they have not spoken for some time now.

“We haven’t been talking, it’s been a long time,” the senator said in Filipino in a news forum, adding that she was able to talk to him only at public events.

“There are many people around him who are preventing us from talking to each other,” she added.

Senator Marcos maintained that she harbored no ill feelings after her brother skipped her name while introducing the senatorial candidates of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas in a campaign sortie in Cavite on Friday.

At the event, the President named all the candidates on the administration’s senatorial slate, including Camille Villar who, like Senator Marcos, was absent.

“It’s fine with me. There’s no problem with that. It’s okay because I am focused on the investigation of FPRRD’s departure from the Philippines to The Hague,” she said. FPRRD stands for former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

“Let’s prioritize defending our sovereignty over politics and campaigns,” she added.

On 20 March, Senator Marcos, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, headed a motu proprio inquiry into the arrest of Duterte on an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged crimes against humanity.

Duterte was arrested on his arrival from Hong Kong on 11 March and was flown to The Hague in the Netherlands the same day.

At the hearing, it was revealed that the International Criminal Police Organization did not issue a Red Notice against Duterte, only a milder diffusion notice.

Senator Marcos pointed out that an Interpol diffusion notice is different from a Red Notice, which the government initially said was the document under which Duterte was arrested.

In Santa Rosa, Laguna, Alyansa campaign manager Toby Tiangco said there have been no discussions on whether Senator Marcos and Representative Villar were still part of the administration slate.

During the pre-rally press conference, Tiangco said it was up to the two candidates to join the slate and the campaign.

“With regard to that question, I cannot answer for them. So like for Imee, it’s best if she’s the one to answer the question and not us,” he said.

Marcos and Villar did not attend the campaign sortie in Cavite on Friday.