Senator Imee Marcos is back to her role as the ever-faithful defender of the “ change is scamming” Duterte regime, and she found it her duty to warn acting Ombudsman Dante Vargas to reject the pressure coming from the camp of Justice Secretary Jose Crispin “Boying” Remulla to junk the criminal complaint that she had filed against the justice secretary for the arrest and eventual detention of former President Rodrigo Duterte in The Hague on March 11, 2025.
On Sunday, August 31, 2025, Imee “exposed” what she deemed to be the “tremendous pressure” on Vargas to scrap the criminal complaint she had filed against Boying Remulla and other officials for what she alleged was the alleged arbitrary arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who had been accused by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity for the summary executions of 43 Filipinos as representative of the more than 6,000 killings perpetrated during the Duterte “anti-drug.” Imee accused Remulla and others of usurpation of judicial functions, false testimony, perjury, arbitrary detention and grave misconduct in Duterte’s arrest on March 11, 2025 but now, she has added “bribery” and “tremendous pressure” as offenses being committed to force Vargas to toss her criminal complaint.
To add more gravy to the thick stew, there is the added claim that unidentified parties were offering “enormous” sums to influence the acting Ombudsman to squash Imee’s allegations. Moreover, Imee alleges in a rather weak fashion that since the wife of Vargas happened to be once a classwoman of Boying Remulla, ergo there is a “conflict of interest” that could lead to the inhibition of Vargas. Evidence-free allegations are a dime a dozen in our flood-stricken country and the people more than amused by the into the plunder of flood control funds may want a respite, with Imee providing a worthy alternative in the Vargas “payoff” episode. So far, we only have read statements but none of the evidence about “enormous sums” and “tremendous pressure.” Slake our thirst for proof, Madame, and spare us the usual Duterte jabberwocky about the retreat of the rule law and the rise of the rule of loo under your wise brother’s dispensation.
In the argle-bargle of Philippine politics and the lawfare copied from Washington D.C., there is always some remedy to champion the weakest arguments and wish that prosecutors would find for them. In the case of the Duterte arrest, the operative fact is that Duterte is massaging the steel bars of Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, mooting the very case that Imee had lodged for the benefit of his pals. Filing case after case ostensibly to push the idea that she really cares for the unlamented Duterte (to which Baste, Honeylet and many of the Duterte cultists do not subscribe), Imee tends to lose sight of the fact that there’s no snowball’s chance in hell for her to be chosen for a slot in the presidential race in 2028. As senator of the republic, Imee should stop the extended performance at the Senate and the airwaves. Too much of nothing makes a felony, as Robert “Bob Dylan” Zimmerman sings.
Performative females and males generally don’t last long and the same holds true in politics, which explains why the Bong Gos, Camille Villars, Bato de la Rosas and others in between eventually lose their sting, their relevance and their value in the already shattered tiles of the Philippine Senate. For relevance, why is Imee not playing the flood control scam card? The Duterte fluffers in the Senate are already getting beating, especially now that it has become abundantly clear that change really was scamming in 2016, when the Discayas became DPWH contractors and, in one ugly turn of events at the Senate, confirmed that they joined CLTG Corp., spelled completely as Christopher Lawrence Tesoro Go Construction Corp., and snagged five DPWH projects in the Davao Region worth P616 million. CLTG is none other than Senator Christopher Larence Tesoro Go.
Upon questioning by Sen. De la Rosa, Sarah Discaya repeated that her companies started working on DPWH projects in 2016, under the Duterte regime, eventually joining the fun of bidding against eight of her other companies to win fat contracts. The public at large wants to hear more of Imee’s wisdom, which has been sorely lacking in the current Senate, like her rhetoric when she squirmed past allegations of misappropriation of the proceeds of the tobacco excise tax in Ilocos Norte, the overprice in the purchases of vehicles and others. Since the Marcos and Duterte dynasties vowed to support each though the heavens may fall, they can now engage in political cannibalism, or coprophagy, as both political factions are unrivalled in graft and plunder. The scams of 2016-2022 will surely be intensified from 2025 to 2028.
“I urge Vargas to resist the pressure and to honor the oath that he took. Do not let the office meant to fight corruption become corrupted itself,” Marcos said as he warned Vargas that dismissing her complaint would be an injustice and would justify political kidnappings. She hollered: “Resolve the various pending incidents by giving the parties all the leeway necessary to ferret out the truth. Do not betray the trust of the Filipino people by giving in to fear or favor. Do not cave in to external pressure.” There appears to be some confusion here. Imee wants a resolution from Vargas favorable to her but she also wants Vargas to practically inhibit himself. Thus, the call for him to leave the matter to whoever is chosen as successor to Martires.
Imee’s carping comes at a time when another Remulla, Local Government and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, has been linked to the plan to insert P8-billion allocation in the 2026 budget of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the purchase of 80,000 cal. 5.56mm assault rifles. The stern refusal of former PNP chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III to sign a Napolcom resolution to that effect led to a cascade of events that led from Torre’s being hailed a hero for arresting Duterte relief to being tagged as a heel on August 26, 2025 and kicked out of his post after only 85 days. Should her case against Remulla be dismissed, Imee claimed her nemesis would likely be appointed Ombudsman. The Remullas are political survivors in the forbidding forest of Philippine politics. They backed Jojo Binay for president only to dump him and back Rodrigo Duterte. Similarly, they pledged loyalty to Ping Lacson but abandoned him. Shades of Kabitismo?
