Incoming Senator Imee Marcos has disclosed that she feels awkward to sit as chairperson of the Senate committee on electoral reforms due to the pending election protest of her brother, former Senator Bongbong Marcos, against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In an interview during her Thanksgiving Party on Thursday night, Marcos told reporters the committee would be hers to lead when the 18th Congress opens in July.
“I feel awkward because my brother has a protest but I think it is important for the country to look again on the elections and system of Smartmatic,” said Marcos.
Bongbong Marcos, who lost to Robredo by around 200,000 votes, filed the protest before the Supreme Court, which acts as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
He repeatedly contested the integrity of the 2016 polls following the alleged violations committed by the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic when the technology provider changed a script in the transparency server in the evening of May 9, 2013.
While Smartmatic stressed that the alteration was merely “cosmetic” and did not have any effect on the election results, Bongbong claimed massive and “blatant” fraud took place, paving the way for administration candidate Robredo to win the vice presidential race.
Imee Marcos said she was being eyed to lead the Senate electoral reforms committee, which was chairdd by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III during the 17th Congress.
Pimentel will now chair the Senate committee on foreign affairs to be vacated by outgoing Senator Loren Legarda, who was elected congresswoman of Antique province.
The former Ilocos Norte governor also hopes her brother’s electoral protest would be resolved before the 2022 national elections.
Robredo has said her camp already filed a motion before the PET seeking to resolve the protest, but she cannot disclose more information to the public regarding the case.
Sought for her comment on Robredo’s statement that “anything is possible in 2022” when pressed about her presidential plan, Marcos said everybody should focus first on their job before thinking about the next polls.
“There are many things that should be done. We just finished with the election, and yet, we again wanted to be in an election. It is much better that we work first,” Marcos said.
The new senator added she has a “huge” poverty reduction agenda.
“So I have a lot of things to do before thinking of 2022. We were just elected. We have not yet performed and fulfill our campaign promises.”