Amid the ongoing Cabinet reshuffle, a video of Sen. Imee Marcos supposedly urging her younger brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, to step down from office is circulating online. This is misleading. The video was first uploaded in 2023.
On May 24, a nine-second clip posted on Facebook (FB) featured Imee supposedly encouraging the president to resign. In the background is an infographic featuring Bongbong and a list of his Cabinet members who have filed their courtesy resignations.
The circulating video also bore this text:
“Imee marcos pinapa resign na ang knyang kapatid na c BBM (Imee Marcos now asking his brother BBM to resign).”
In the clip, the senator can be heard saying:
“Oh, kumusta? Eh, ba’t nandiyan ka pa? Akala ko nag-resign ka na? If you are looking for a sign to resign, eh, ako na ‘yun (Oh, how are you? Why are you still there? I thought you already resigned? If you are looking for a sign to resign, it is me)!
Below Imee’s clip was this text:
“Kahit magpalit-palit ka pa ng sekretaryo mo, ng mga kalihim ng ibat’ ibang departamento, ang problema ikaw mismo (Even if you shuffle your secretaries, the heads of the different departments, the problem is you yourself).”
The video is misleading. In the original video uploaded in 2023, Imee neither named anyone nor addressed her brother.
The official TikTok account of the senator posted the video on April 22, 2023. Imee did not mention any names nor her brother as the person she was supposed to be talking to. The caption used the hashtags #PinoyComedy and #Hugot, which may indicate that the video is just for entertainment.
@senatorimeemarcos Ate is calling you! She got your back! Still looking for a sign? Siya na yung sign! #SuperAteImee #PinoyComedy #hugot #pinaytiktok #imeemarcos #imeesolusyon #ImeeMarcos #filipino #foryou #fyp #foryoupage #imeecalling ♬ original sound – Senator Imee Marcos
Even though Imee has been vocal about her support for the Dutertes, there are no reports of her asking her younger brother to step down from the presidency.
The bottom text was taken from the reaction of Vic Rodriguez, Marcos’ first executive secretary who had crossed over to the Duterte camp, to the Cabinet revamp.
The misleading video circulated three days after the president ordered members of the Cabinet to tender their courtesy resignations. According to the Malacañang, the reshuffle after the midterm polls aims to give way for the departments’ evaluations and their realignment with the administration’s “recalibrated priorities.”
During a press conference on the sidelines of the 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Malaysia, Bongbong rejected his critics’ calls for him to step down, saying “it’s not [his] personality to run away from problems.”
Two videos uploaded by FB page Allanodin salic (created on May 4, 2019) and another FB user collectively garnered 2,743 reactions, 826 comments, 679 shares and 557,000 views.
