President Marcos has denied allegations that the administration is targeting members of the Senate majority bloc facing legal troubles, insisting that the cases against them resulted from investigations and testimonies gathered by government agencies.

Speaking to Manila-based reporters in Tokyo on Friday, May 29, the President said the probes were initiated long before the current Senate alignments emerged.

“Hindi ko alam kung paano napunta na sinasabi na ‘yung majority ngayon ang tina-target (I do not know how it became an issue that the current majority is supposedly being targeted),” he said.

“Dahil kung tutuusin ninyo, hindi sila majority noon. So, that does not apply (Because if you think about it, they were not the majority before. So that does not apply),” he added.

Marcos recalled that nearly a year ago, he told the public that the “whole truth” regarding allegations linked to flood control projects must come out.

He said investigations are now slowly producing results.

“Ngayon, nandito na at dahan-dahan lumalabas na ang katotohanan (Now we are here, and little by little, the truth is coming out),” he said.

“At ang pinakamaganda, kung talagang may kaso, kung sila ba naman ay walang ginawang mali, ay lalabas naman ‘yan sa pagsusuri ng paghusga (And the best thing is, if there are really cases, and if they truly did nothing wrong, that will come out during the process of judgment),” he added.

President Marcos stressed that the cases were rooted in findings and testimonies gathered during Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings and not because of political alignments.

“So, binigay ng Blue Ribbon Committee sa Ombudsman at saka sa DOJ ang mga findings nila, ito ang naging resulta ngayon (So the Blue Ribbon Committee gave its findings to the Ombudsman and DOJ, and these are now the results),” he added.

The President said changes in Senate alliances would not affect the investigations.

“So hindi — walang kinalaman ‘yung majority, minority sa Senado. Ito ang dahil sa resulta ng mga imbestigasyon ng Blue Ribbon Committee at ng iba’t ibang ahensiya ng pamahalaan (So the Senate majority or minority has nothing to do with this. These are the results of investigations by the Blue Ribbon Committee and various government agencies),” he said.

Marcos also rejected claims by Senator Rodante Marcoleta that Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s leadership supposedly lacked Malacañang’s blessing.

“Malacañang doesn't give a rubber stamp to the Senate president,” he said.

“The Senate president is decided by the senators themselves,” he added.

Marcos said the idea that the Palace dictates who senators should vote for was unrealistic.

“Uutusan mo ‘yung senador na ito yung iboboto mo? Parang out of this world ‘yata ‘yung mga usapang ganoon (You would order senators whom to vote for? Those kinds of discussions seem out of this world),” he said.

The President added that as a former senator himself, he found such claims laughable.

“Me, as a former senator, I will laugh in your face because that's simply not true,” he said.

Four members of the Senate’s majority bloc — a block comprising mostly known allies and supporters of Vice President Sara Duterte — are facing legal challenges for various reasons.

Senator Robin Padilla is facing an obstruction of justice complaint over the escape of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the drug war killings in the previous administration.

The Sandiganbayan has issued a precautionary hold departure order against Marcoleta and other officials over alleged plunder, indirect bribery findings by the Office of the Ombudsman.

According to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, the plunder and indirect bribery complaints against acting Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva are “already ripe” for filing within the next two weeks. The charges stem from a House of Representatives probe into alleged multibillion-peso flood control anomalies in Bulacan, where Villanueva allegedly received kickbacks.

Lastly, the Office of the Ombudsman said P573 million worth of alleged kickbacks was “systematically delivered” to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, prompting its filing of the third plunder case against the majority bloc senator.