Senator Imee Marcos denied she initiated moves to unseat Senate President Vicente ”Tito” Sotto III, clarifying she was in fact the last to find out about such plan.

Addressing her statement to the Senate leader, the President’s sister said she did not orchestrated any Senate coup and the members of the Senate minority bloc can attest to it.

“With all due respect, Senate President, contrary to statements ascribed to you by the media, I did not initiate the attempted Senate coup; Sen. Alan (Cayetano) and my minority colleagues will attest to the fact that I was one of the later holdouts,” Marcos said.

In the first place, Marcos said she is grateful to Sotto’s leadership and for keeping her on as the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for the past months.

A known critic of her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s administration, Marcos said she knows she is aligned on key issues, particularly on the government’s foreign policy issue.

I have been most grateful to you for keeping me on as the Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee for the past months, fully aware that such a premier committee is traditionally kept by the majority,” she said.

“Also, as I am neither philosophically nor strategically aligned with the administration on key issues of foreign policy, it has been ever more difficult to defend it abroad,” she added. 

“In fact, if you wil recall, I did not participate in the Tarriela debates on the floor, intent on speaking to you  regarding my increasingly untenable position,” she reiterated.

Marcos said what started the coup rumors was the concern among senators that the institution cannot protect or defend some of its members especially on the issue on the anomalous flood control projects.

At least three of the senators—Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva and Francis “Chiz” Escudero are part of the Senate Blue RIbbon Committee’s partial and unofficial committee report and are recommended to be charged with plunder and malversation of public funds.

“What did propel the said ‘coup’ was a general sense, amongst even majority members, that the Senate was being targeted in the various flood and infra investigations, and that senators could no longer rely on the institution to protect or defend them,” Marcos lamented. 

“I expect a common statement from the minority to be forthcoming, and hope that in the meanwhile I am no longer blamed for being the ‘coup instigator’,” she stressed.