President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. yesterday raised concern about Sen. Imee Marcos, saying family members and close friends have been “very worried” about her recent public behavior.
The President said that the Imee the public was seeing on television is not his “sister,” after the senator claimed in a speech during the Iglesia ni Cristo rally last week that her brother is using illegal drugs.
“It’s anathema to talk about family matters in public,” Mr. Marcos said emotionally in a press conference.
“We do not like to show our dirty linen in public. So I’ll just say this much: For a while now, we’ve been very worried about my sister. When I say we, I’m talking about friends and family. The lady you see talking on TV is not my sister,” he added.
The President added that the same sentiment is shared among their cousins and mutual friends.
In the same press conference, Mr. Marcos said that his relations with former Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and ex–Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman remain cordial, despite the recent revamp.
In a statement, President Marcos said that he had the chance to talk with Bersamin and assured that there is no “bad blood” between them amid the fiasco in the former Chief Justice’s resignation from his post.
“We’ve talked already. We understand each other, and we decided to keep it between ourselves. There’s no bad blood, there’s no acrimonious feeling,” the president stated.
President Marcos also addressed concerns involving Pangandaman, saying her name was unfairly “dragged” into the controversy.
“We want to be sure that she’s not in a position where she might be suspected of influencing all that,” he said, adding that once she left government, she would no longer have the power to sway any related proceedings.
The resignations came after Bersamin and Pangandaman were linked to alleged anomalies in flood control projects.
He did not detail the specific reasons for the family’s concern but emphasized that the senator’s recent public statements do not reflect the sister they know.
“That’s why we are worried, we are very worried about her. I hope she feels better soon,” Mr. Marcos said.
Asked whether the siblings had recently spoken, President Marcos said they no longer move within the same social or political circles.
“We don’t really… we no longer travel in the same circles, political or otherwise,” he said.
In a separate post, Imee responded to the President’s remarks, saying that her brother is seeing things: “Bongbong, it’s me, you are seeing things, ading (younger sibling). Prove that I’m wrong, I want to be wrong.”
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Bersamin and Pangandaman stepped down “out of delicadeza” after their names came up in the flood-control controversy, acknowledging a responsibility to allow the administration to address the matter.
Bersamin rebuked Castro’s statements, saying he was asked by someone to step down from his post as the Executive Secretary. He, however, did not disclose the name of the one who ordered him to tender his resignation.
The resignations of Bersamin and Pangandaman were accepted by Mr. Marcos last week. Former Finance Secretary Ralph Rector replaced Bersamin as the Executive Secretary, while DBM Undersecretary Rolando Toledo took over as the budget department’s officer-in-charge.
