PBBM confirms rift with sister Imee
‘We do not give any warning to fake news peddlers,’ she said in Filipino. ’What we are saying is that whatever fake news is found to have been spread, the NBI has the mandate to investigate it.’
Senator Imee Marcos on Tuesday suggested that the recent arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte was politically motivated, pointing to a series of events that she believes are part of broader efforts against the Duterte family.
TED ALJIBE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE and photograph courtesy of Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday said he and his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, have not spoken for three years, following the senator’s statement over the weekend that her relationship with the President was nonexistent.
“Immediately after the UPLIFT meeting, I approached the President and asked for his comment on Senator Imee,” Palace Press Officer and Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a press briefing.
“He said yes, they haven’t spoken for almost three years. She has not been attending family gatherings. That was the President’s answer,” Castro added.
Castro told reporters it should be the senator who should answer questions on what went wrong between them, saying the President was not harboring any ill feelings toward his elder sister.
“Before he answered, the President thought about it very well,” Castro said in Filipino. “In my opinion, he is disappointed about the things his sister has been spreading.”
Earlier, Senator Marcos said “At this point, of course, I love him, he’s my brother, but I haven’t seen him perhaps for over a year now, and I don’t really go to the reunions.”
“It’s not comfortable, and I prefer my kids to go if they want to go. It’s fine,” she had said.
To recall, it was Senator Imee who revealed in an Iglesia ni Cristo gathering at the Luneta last year that President Marcos had allegedly been taking illegal drugs since he was a local government executive in Ilocos Norte.
She also said her brother had been in and out of the hospital since November last year and she urged him to release an official medical bulletin.
Fake news peddler
Meanwhile, Castro tagged Senator Marcos as a fake news peddler after she aired her dismay over the Department of Agriculture importing cabbage, calling the DA the “Department of Angkat” (Department of Imports).
“I personally talked to DA Secretary Kiko Tiu Laurel during the UPLIFT Committee meeting, and he denied Senator Marcos’ allegations,” Castro said. “The DA is not importing cabbage.” “Senator Imee should be asked where her information is coming from. As far as Secretary Laurel is concerned, it’s fake news,” she added.
Asked if the Palace was issuing the same warning to Senator Marcos for spreading fake news as it does to other fake news peddlers, Castro said it was up to the National Bureau of Investigation to act, adding that the government does not give warnings to fake news peddlers.
“We do not give any warning to fake news peddlers,” she said in Filipino. “What we are saying is that whatever fake news is found to have been spread, the NBI has the mandate to investigate it.”
The NBI earlier arrested former broadcast journalist and known Duterte supporter Jay Sonza for spreading a fake medical bulletin on President Marcos on his Facebook page.
Sonza was released by the NBI on Monday after he posted a P10,000 bail.