President Marcos, for the second time, kept the name of his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, out of his speech in a campaign sortie in Laguna on Saturday evening, March 22, as he specifically endorsed "11 candidates" running under the administration's Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas.

"Huwag nating gawing alyansa lamang nitong eleven na kandidato na tumatakbo bilang senador na kasama sa Alyansa. Samahan niyo po kami (Let us not make this just an alliance of these eleven candidates running for senator who are part of the Alliance. Please join us)," he said in his speech in Nuvali City.

"Magsama-sama po tayo. Magtulungan po tayo. Mag-alyansa po tayo muli upang labanan ang kahirapan, upang labanan ang krimen, upang labanan ang mga drug lord na pumapasok dito sa Pilipinas (Let us come together. Let us help one another. Let us form an alliance once again to fight poverty, crime, and the drug lords entering the Philippines)," he added.

In his speech, Marcos went over each of his senatorial candidates and praised their track record and background, including even Congresswoman Camille Villar who was not present at the event.

However, it was noticeable that there was no mention of Senator Marcos, who was part of the 12 Alyansa candidates introduced when the slate was announced.

This was the second time the President did not mention the senator in a campaign sortie. The first was on Friday when he campaigned for his candidates in Trece Martires, Cavite.

Malacañang has yet to respond to queries if the President's omission of his sister's name was deliberate or not.

Senator Marcos was one of the three Alyansa candidates who were reportedly dismayed by the arrest and surrender of former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 11.

The lady senator also launched a Senate hearing into the arrest, an inquiry which Malacañang vowed not to block.

While it is unsure if the siblings' differing stand on the matter caused a so-called rift between them, Senator Marcos did not seem to mind being omitted from her brother's speech.

"Ayos lang sa akin. Wala namang problema doon (It's fine by me. There's no problem with that)," she said.

However, she admitted that she and the President have not spoken for a long time except during public functions.

"Hindi na kami nag-uusap, matagal na (We haven't talked to each other for a long time)," she said.

"Maraming nakapaligid sa kanya na humaharang sa aming mag-usap (A lot of people around him are preventing us from talking)," she added.