Imee Marcos denies funding Duterte campaign

MANILA, Philippines — Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos claimed that President Rodrigo Duterte was only joking when he said that she was among the politicians who funded his presidential campaign.

In a speech last October 4, Duterte said Marcos supported his campaign and noted that his father was a close ally of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The name of Marcos, however, does not appear among the donors listed by Duterte in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures.

"We supported him in Ilocos Norte and I donated one empanada, isang coca-cola kaya wala sa SOCE pero 'yun lang 'yun. Biruan lang 'yun," Marcos said in an interview on ANC's Headstart Thursday morning.

Marcos noted that Ilocos Norte was the only province in the north which supported Duterte in his presidential campaign.

"Ang totoo wala naman donasyon and there's no sinister x-deal behind the curtain somewhere. It's absolutely untrue and I'd like to disabuse that," Marcos said.

The late strongman's eldest daughter also revealed that Duterte was the one who approached their family during the campaign season and promised to bury their father at the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroes' Cemetery.

Marcos added that Duterte's proposition came as a surprise and that their family did not ask for their patriarch to have a hero's burial.

"I never asked for it. He (Duterte) went to Ilocos Norte and said 'I am a lawyer and as far as I know, nasa batas na ililibing siya sa Libingan dapat,'" Marcos said.

The Ilocos Norte governor stressed that their family is not trying to revise history by burying their father at the Heroes' Cemetery.

"The only one who can revise history are gonna be the historians. My father famously said history isn't done with me yet and he was very self-aware in fact that he would be judged by history in the long haul of time," Marcos said.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that Duterte did not commit grave abuse of discretion in ordering a hero's burial for the ousted dictator.

Duterte stands firm on his decision to grant a hero's burial for the elder Marcos despite appeals for him to change his mind.