Opinion

BBM lied four times at start of campaign

GOTCHA - Jarius Bondoc - The Philippine Star

February 14, 2025 | 12:00am

Imee Marcos should’ve corrected brother Bongbong last Tuesday.

In presenting his 12 senatorial bets, BBM claimed that none of them abetted China aggression, drug war killings, POGOs and plunder during pandemic.

Going by Imee’s 2019-2025 senatorial record, BBM was wrong on all four counts:

(1) On April 1, 2024, Imee said, “Emotion rather than reason has prevailed in our maritime conflict with China and is leading us down a dangerous path that will cost us more than just Filipino pride.”

BBM had then just formed a National Maritime Council. On March 23, the China Coast Guard had barged into Ayungin Shoal in the Philippine exclusive economic zone and maimed three Filipino sailors with water cannon.

Imee virtually echoed Beijing. It claimed on March 28 that the Filipinos were the trespassers, and “by counting on Washington, Manila was straying down a dangerous path.”

On Jan. 31, 2025, Imee repeated anew Beijing’s propaganda against US and world support for Manila: “Pag nag-umpugan yu’ng dalawang dambuhala [China and US], tiyak masasaktan tayo. Kaya kailangang huwag tayong papanig. Palakasin at bigyan ng sariling kakayahan ang mga sundalo, self-reliant defense.”

Imee’s Congress slashed P15 billion from the AFP’s meager P50-billion modernization budget for 2025.

Seeking chairmanship of the Senate foreign affairs committee on June 1, 2022, Imee was asked about her stance on China’s sea aggression. She replied, “China is our No. 1 trade partner, and despite certain anti-Beijing sentiments, I remind everyone that China never invaded us.”

In 1988-1989, China grabbed Kagitingan (Fiery Cross), Zamora (Subi), McKennan (Hughes), Calderon (Cuarteron), Mabini (Johnson South) and Burgos (Gaven) Reefs. It concreted Panganiban (Mischief) Reef into an island fortress in 1995. It grabbed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in 2012, then Sandy Cay beside Pag-asa Island in 2017.

Every fishing season, hundreds of China Maritime Militia trawlers blockade Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in Pinagkaisa (Union) Bank. Last year, CCG and CMM vessels surrounded Rozul (Iroquois) and Escoda (Sabina) Shoals in Recto Bank preparatory to illegal landfilling. They rammed Philippine Coast Guard patrols.

(2) Imee ignores cries for justice by families of 7,000 slain suspects in Rody Duterte’s drug war. That includes 122 minors, Fr. Flaviano Villanueva and human rights lawyers Chel Diokno and Kristina Conti lament.

“Ang laking kahihiyan talaga sa Pilipinas ‘pag pumasok ‘yang ICC [International Criminal Court] na ‘yan,” Imee said on Nov. 22, 2023. “Huwag tayo papayag.”

Duterte supporters don’t want ICC to try him for crimes against humanity, claiming that local courts can do it. No charges have been brought against him in any Philippine court since bloody Oplan Tokhang in 2016-2019.

Imee objected when senators summoned Duterte Oct. 28, 2024: “Maybe it would be better if we bring it to court if there’s already enough evidence. Let’s bring it to court so that it would not be labeled partisan, self-serving, untruthful.”

On Jan. 28, 2024, Imee joined Duterte’s Davao City rally against BBM. She sat beside VP Sara Duterte while mayor Sebastian Duterte called for BBM to step down.

(3) On Sept. 22, 2021, Duterte signed the law legalizing Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations. Principal authors were Imee, then-Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Pia Cayetano (now also in BBM’s senatorial ticket).

POGOs were Chinese owned and financed. They diversified into human trafficking, narcotrade, money laundering, cyberscamming, kidnapping, torture, illegal land acquisition, document counterfeiting, spying and 40 other crimes.

Soon after Bamban mayor Alice Guo’s exposure as a Chinese with fake Filipino citizenship, her photo with Imee circulated online. They were inside a car, smiling, and with fingers in peace sign.

Imee claimed she met Guo only once, during a DSWD ayuda distribution at the height of the 2022 election campaign. Cash and food dole-outs are prohibited during campaign periods. Guo has since taken down the photo from her Instagram account.

On Jan. 27, 2025, Imee and majority senators granted Filipinoship to Li Duan Wang. Sen. Risa Hontiveros warned them about the Chinese national’s shady deals. Li operated 9 Dynasty Junket Group, partner of Rivendell Gaming Corp., which owned a POGO scam hub in Pasay City. Authorities raided it in August 2023.

(4) Imee refused to sign the Senate investigation report on plunderous Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Pharmally wangled P12.7 billion in ghost and substandard pandemic supplies in 2020-2021. It was financed by POGO partners Michael Yang and Lin Weixiong. Yang was Duterte’s special economic adviser. With their help, Chinese companies stole P42.5 billion in all.

Duterte kept cussing Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Dick Gordon for investigating the scam. Only eight other senators signed Gordon’s recommendation to indict Yang, Lin, Duterte and appointees to the DBM procurement service.

In refusing, Imee claimed: “We wanted an investigation. But I think there were many inclusions that do not, or were not merited, given the evidence available.”

The ombudsman has since indicted most of the culprits based on Gordon’s report.

Duterte’s spokesman resented BBM’s political swipe in enumerating the four items. He claimed that under Duterte’s watch, China never aggressed the Philippines.

Wrong. On June 9, 2019 a CMM steel trawler rammed the anchored Filipino wooden fishing craft GemVer1. It abandoned 22 crewmen thrown into the cold night sea of Recto Bank.

On Feb 17, 2020 a trespassing Chinese warship armed and aimed its weapons at a Philippine Navy patrol returning to base from Malampaya gas field in Palawan waters.