Do we like Imee Marcos?
Our score: 3 out of 10. A thin pile of real good (student aid, an anti-discrimination push) sits against a wrongful-death judgment, biography claims fact-checkers rated false, and a loyalty to the Marcos-era story.
Imee Marcos is the eldest child of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and the older sister of the current president. She sat in the Batasang Pambansa in the 1980s, served as congresswoman for Ilocos Norte's second district from 1998, governed the province from 2010 to 2019, and has been a senator since 2019. These days she sits in the Senate minority, at open war with her own brother's government.
Her biggest baggage is the family business. Fresh into the Senate in 2019, she told ANC that her father's martial law had “resounding successes”, while the outlet noted that era is tied to human rights violations and large-scale corruption. In 2018 she said she had already apologised many times and would not keep doing it, asking why the family should admit to things it says it did not do.
In 1991 a Hawaii court found her liable for the wrongful death of Archimedes Trajano and ordered her to pay over US$4 million. The family never received it, and the Philippine Supreme Court ruled for her because her summons was not properly served. Fact-checkers have also rated her biography claims false: Princeton and UP Law both said she had not graduated, and VERA Files found her website's claim to have founded Kabataang Barangay false. Then there's the tobacco funds: in 2018 the Ombudsman had a fact-finding probe into P66.45 million, including allegedly overpriced minicab purchases, and she denied any irregularity. We found no outcome.
On the harm test, here's what we did not find: any campaign by her against LGBTQ+ people. She announced in 2019 she would file her own LGBT rights bill, and in 2022 said a more general anti-discrimination bill was a good first step. We found nothing on her climate or vaccine positions. Less comfortable: in March 2024 she was among the senators moving to block a Senate contempt order against church leader Apollo Quiboloy, who was then before a Senate women's committee inquiry.
2026 has been all stoush. In January Senator Ping Lacson raised alleged P2.5 billion in funds linked to her in the proposed budget, and she replied with personal remarks about his hair, not the figures. In February she denied reports that she had instigated a failed move against Senate President Tito Sotto, after losing her foreign relations chair. In May the Palace said her no-elections video was meant to overshadow the coming impeachment trial.
On the Dutertes she has picked a side. In 2025 she led a Senate probe into Rodrigo Duterte's arrest by the ICC, saying sovereignty and legal processes must be paramount, and in August called the impeachment complaint against Sara Duterte “dead but it's not really buried”. Where you land depends on whether you read that as standing up for due process or as choosing a side in a power feud.