Senator Imee Marcos: 'I did not initiate the attempted Senate coup'

Senator Imee Marcos denied anew that she was behind the move to replace the Senate leadership, stating that she was among the last to know about it.

"With all due respect, SP, contrary to statements ascribed to you by the media, I did not initiate the attempted Senate coup," Marcos said in a statement directed at Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III.

"Senator Alan and my minority colleagues will attest to the fact that I was one of the later holdouts," she added.

This was after Sotto said in a previous interview that among the triggers in the move to unseat him was Marcos' removal from the Committee on Foreign Relations.

She stated earlier that her removal has nothing to do with what's happening in the Senate, referring to the leadership shakeup.

Marcos said that she has been most grateful to him for keeping her on as the Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee for the past months, fully aware that such a premier committee is traditionally held by the majority.

She added that she's neither philosophically nor strategically aligned with the administration on key issues of foreign policy, and it has been ever more difficult to defend it abroad.

"In fact, if you will recall, I did not participate in the Tarriela debates on the floor, intent on speaking to you regarding my increasingly untenable position," she said.

"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," she added.

Marcos said that she expects a common statement from the minority to be forthcoming, and hope that she is no longer blamed for being the "coup instigator."

-Paraluman News