Marcos says Zubiri’s colleagues responsible for Senate shakeup

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said former Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri’s fellow lawmakers in the upper chamber were responsible for the recent change of leadership in the Senate.

In an interview with reporters in Brunei, Marcos said that Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero came up to him and told him that he would try to be the Senate President.

While Marcos said had “no hand” in the recent change of leadership in the Senate, he had been “informed every step of the way” on how Zubiri would be ousted as the Senate President.

“I did not speak to any parties at that point simply because I was out of town. (But) I was basically informed at every step of the way but it moves so quickly as well. We knew the state of the voting. When that was still being collected, the votes were still being collected by Senator Chiz,” Marcos said.

Earlier this month, Zubiri resigned from the Senate Presidency just hours before his colleagues voted to replace him.

Zubiri said that he may have lost the trust and confidence of influential figures.

Zubiri was reportedly unable to stop the Senate hearings linking Marcos to illegal drug use and struggled to garner support in the chamber for a charter change measure.

Marcos stated that it is still unclear what Zubiri meant when he attributed his removal from the Senate Presidency to his failure to meet the expectations of the “powers that be.”

“I guess if you are Senate President, the only power that be is the President… but I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to (Zubiri) about it. The last time I spoke to him, we talked about the procurement law and this has not come up,” Marcos Jr. said.

However, Marcos said that the decision of the senators “does not reflect my view on Senator Migz and the trust and confidence I have in him” (TCSP)