Imee Marcos got wrong info again – Sotto
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Sunday disputed the claim of Sen. Imee Marcos that he and Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson were conniving to block the supposed presidential run of Vice President Sara Duterte in 2028.
The opposition senator said Marcos was misinformed when she was told of supposed plans to convoke Congress into a constituent assembly to extend the terms of President Marcos and incumbent representatives.
Marcos said in an interview on Thursday that lawmakers are also conspiring to raise the presidential age requirement from 45 to 50 purposely to disqualify Duterte.
READ: Ping Lacson: Imee Marcos’ ‘con-ass’ claims are ‘flat lies’
Marcos claimed that Sotto met with Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III at the East Ocean Palace restaurant facing Manila Bay to talk about Charter change (Chacha) via constituent assembly (conass) or constitutional convention (concon).
The third way to amend the Constitution is through a people’s initiative, but the Commission on Elections stopped verifying signatures for any people’s initiative in January 2024.
READ: Acidre to Imee: Stop political fiction; do your duty as senator-judge
But Sotto disputed Marcos’ conclusions and denied that there were any agreements on a constituent assembly.
“She’s wrong, Ping [Lascon] is right. We never discussed conass,” Sotto said, admitting that he met with Dy at the East Ocean Palace restaurant, but there was no agreement on Chacha, whether by conass or concon.
“In one dinner with some golf friends and Speaker Bojie (Dy), he mentioned an idea of suggesting a regional senate representation. I never said it’s OK. Her [Marcos’] source doesn’t know how to listen,” Sotto said.
“I even said ‘If ever there is an amendment to the [Constitution], I prefer we lower the age for President and Senators.’ But that was just friendly banter. The eavesdropper had [a] misconception.”
‘Outright lies’
Lacson had earlier said Marcos’ claims were “flat, outright lies,” boosting claims that Marcos’ claims were meant to divert attention from developments in the Senate ahead of the vice president’s impeachment trial.
“Those are flat, outright lies. We never took [Chacha] up in our caucuses. We meet frequently but never talk about it. Whoever cooked up that tale, we don’t know what they are trying to get at,” Lacson said in Filipino over True FM.
“I don’t know where those tales came from … If those who are spinning those stories have proof, then it’s up to them,” Lacson added.
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano himself claimed that minority senators, led by Sotto and Lacson, revived talks about Chacha purportedly to destabilize his fragile majority in the Senate, which includes Marcos, and retake the Senate, which is set to convene for Duterte’s impeachment trial in July.
But both Sotto and Lacson have spoken against Chacha and Cayetano and Marcos are the only ones talking about constitutional amendments.
Sotto earlier claimed that Marcos was among the instigators of the coup because she was upset at being removed as chair of the foreign relations committee, but Marcos denied the claim, saying senators were unhappy because of Lacson’s blue ribbon probe on flood control investigations.
Most of the senators who voted to oust Sotto were among those who were being investigated by the blue ribbon committee for allegedly receiving money from the government’s flood control project fund.
The blue ribbon committee is now headed by Cayetano’s sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano. /cb
