Senator Imee Marcos on Wednesday called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to publicly rebut testimony alleging a secret power-sharing deal between him and Vice President Sara Duterte, saying the claim was an outright fabrication.
The senator directed her remarks at Ramil Madriaga, the witness who told House lawmakers a day earlier that the President had supposedly agreed to step down in Duterte’s favor as part of a pre-2022 election arrangement within the UniTeam alliance.
“Hoy, Madriaga, sinungaling ka! Unang-una, no such thing as yung mga term-term… Talaga naman kasinungalingan yan,” Marcos said at a press briefing.
The senator, who is the President’s elder sister, dismissed the account as baseless and pushed back on what she described as a coordinated effort to damage the Vice President’s reputation through discredited sources.
“Hindi nila kayang sirain si Inday… Kaya gagamit sila ng taong wasak na ang pagkatao para subukang wasakin din ang Bise Presidente,” she said.
Marcos recalled that early conversations before the tandem was formalized had actually positioned Duterte as the more viable presidential candidate — a detail she cited to underscore how far removed the actual discussions were from any alleged term-swap arrangement.
Her remarks came in the context of the ongoing House impeachment proceedings against Duterte, where Madriaga’s testimony introduced the term-sharing claim before lawmakers.
Turning directly to her brother, Marcos said the President has both the knowledge and the obligation to correct the public record.
“Pangulong Marcos, alam mo ang katotohanan… Kung hindi mo ito ipinag-uutos, walang dahilan para hindi mo itama ang kasinungalingan na ito,” she said.
