MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV welcomed the plan of senator-elect Imee Marcos to have his office blessed but called her hypocritical if she was implying that the outgoing lawmaker is a “bad person.”
Trillanes made the statement after the Senate neophyte said she is eyeing an Igorot ritual to bless the office that the opposition lawmaker would soon vacate before occupying it.
Trillanes’ office went to her through a raffle.
“If the religious ritual is meant to help her fulfil her mandate as a newly-elected senator, then that’s a good thing,” Trillanes said Tuesday.
“But if she’s saying it to insinuate na masama akong tao, then sobrang ka-ipokritohan naman ‘yun, even for a Marcos,” he added.
(But if she’s saying it to insinuate that I am a bad person, then that’s too much hypocrisy, even for a Marcos.)
Trillanes, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, is one of the senators leaving the upper chamber come June 30.
Marcos—the eldest daughter of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.—placed 8th in the 2019 midterm elections despite her questionable educational attainment claims and honesty and integrity issues that hounded her during the campaign.
RELATED: NewsLab: 31 Years of Amnesia
Her father’s administration has been tainted with allegations of cronyism, corruption and human rights violations
The Martial Law imposed by the Marcos patriarch saw about 70,000 people imprisoned, 34,000 tortured and 3,240 killed, according to Amnesty International.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government has recovered more than P171 billion of the supposed Marcos ill-gotten wealth as of 2017, a mere fraction of the P530 billion that the former first family allegedly stole from state coffers. — Gaea Katreena Cabico