Senators seeking to lock impeached Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte out of politics for good may face an uphill battle with one of her staunchest supporters calling the movement against her family “insane and wicked”.
Senator Imee Marcos, the older sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, said it was a “tragedy” that her own family had been given a second chance and “instead of grabbing it and leveraging it into great development and prosperity for the Filipino people, we’ve just wasted it”.
“It’s been wasted on this insane and wicked campaign against the Dutertes,” she said in an interview from her family’s ancestral home in Manila on Wednesday, as a painting of her mother Imelda and late dictator father Ferdinand Marcos Snr hung behind her. “Stagflation is around the corner. It’s a very scary moment for Filipinos.”
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Imee, who said she has a “non-existent” relationship with her brother and last spoke with him at her son’s birthday three years ago, is among 13 lawmakers from the 24-member chamber allied with the vice-president. Duterte will be tried in the Senate in a trial that is set to start in July.
Given the two-thirds hurdle needed for a conviction, she is likely to be acquitted by the upper chamber after being impeached for a second time in the lower house. But if she were convicted, the mandatory penalty would be removal from office and permanent disqualification from politics.
Imee, 70, said she would prefer that only evidence pertinent to the case be presented and hopes everything can wrap up by September.