MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Imee Marcos filed her certificate of candidacy on Wednesday, October 2, seeking to retain her spot in the Senate.
Members of the Marcos clan came in full force to support Imee, with former first lady Imelda Marcos making a rare public appearance to support her daughter. Her sons Borgy Manotoc and Michael Manotoc were also able to join her.
Imee reiterated that she will not join the adminsitration slate, opting to remain a free agent. She is still a member of the Nacionalista Party but said she will refrain from joining an alliance for now.
“Ako’y mananatiling malaya at matatag,” Imee said. (I will remain free and strong.)
Last month, the incumbent senator was announced as part of her brother President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s slate; however, she did not attend the “Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas” convention where the alliance was revealed.
“It is in our blood to serve others and to love the country. She was a representative, a governor, and a senator. They say that she is frank. But she is frank in telling the truth and sticks to what is right,” Marcos Jr. said in Filipino.
Marcos Jr. reasoned that his sister was already campaigning, hence her absence from the convention.
Imee, however, later said she would not join the alliance, saying that she planned to remain independent.
“I choose to remain free and loyal—not to any group but to every Filipino. Armed with my achievements for the nation in the past term, the laws I dedicated for the people, the truth that I never strayed from, and the path and principles of my father: To serve every Filipino without favor, except for the welfare of every citizen,” Imee said.
Legilslation. Imee has authored bills that seek to:
- lower Philhealth insurance premiums
- extend the terms of office of barangay officials to six years
- protect pineapple, moringa, dragon fruit and mango industries in what was collectively called “fruit salad” bills, and
- reform the party-list system by classifying it into political and sectoral organization categories, among others.
She also co-authored the Land Reform Act and the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act. The Supreme Court later struck down the anti-terrorism law’s “killer” clause and a provision allowing the Anti-Terrorism Council to designate persons or groups based solely on the UN Security Council’s resolutions.
Political career. Imee has long been involved in politics, having a role in the young community council Kabataang Barangay in her early 20s during the term of her father, the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., called a dictator.
In 1977, Mapua Institute of Technology student Archimedes Trajano, an activist, publicly questioned Imee’s ability to lead the council. Weeks later, Trajano was found bloodied and dead on the streets of Manila.
She served at the House of Representatives between 1998 and 2007, governor of Ilocos Norte between 2010 and 2019 and was elected senator in 2019.
In 2018, she claimed to have graduated from the prestigious Princeton University in the US. While she studied in the Ivy League school, she did not earn a degree.
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