Joel Villanueva is not just a coach of Imee Marcos. He has become your typical politico who has a characteristic aversion to accountability. In November 2016, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales issued an order to dismiss Villanueva from public office for alleged misuse of P10M in PDAF. The Ombudsman concluded that the disbursements were coursed through a dubious NGO for a livelihood activity that turned out to be a ghost project.
The video merged two official photos and edited with artificial intelligence to make it appear as if Sen. Imee Marcos and Nicholas Kaufman, lawyer of former president Rodrigo Duterte in the ICC, were hugging and kissing.
Amid the ongoing Cabinet reshuffle, a video of Sen. Imee Marcos supposedly urging her brother, President Bongbong Marcos, to step down from office is circulating online. The video bore a 2023 clip of Imee to mislead netizens.
If her “opposition” to her brother is simply an expression of sisterly concern, beyond the recently concluded elections, what will Imee do if helping the Dutertes greatly harms her brother, or her family’s reputation, which she has labored for decades to rehabilitate?
As the former president is in the middle of a legal process, particularly the pre-trial stage, of the ICC, he cannot walk free unless the court approves his temporary release. A senator has no power to bring him back from detention in The Hague.
Amid the acrimonious battle between the Marcos and Duterte camps, reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos has finally chosen whose side to take.
The words Imee used in the political ad to attack the Marcos administration officials could also apply to the Dutertes and their minions, who are facing the same criticisms and more serious allegations of corruption, drug trafficking and crimes against humanity.
Perhaps Imee and Sara deserve each other. Both failed to be amply rewarded for their contributions to Bongbong's election victory in 2022. In the midterms, the president and his allies have become their adversaries.
What could have gone wrong? With less than a month into the May 12 polls, can Imee still recover from her apparent missteps in the past months?
Imee Marcos, who had admitted to the torture and killing of Archimedes Trajano, was acquitted on a technicality, but not on her culpability for murder. She remains guilty in our public eyes.
