Imee Marcos

During the 2019 Midterm Elections, Imee's educational background has been steeped in controversy. Under her parents' conjugal dictatorship, Marcos falsified her graduation from at least four schools (including two universities), falsely claiming that she graduated as "cum laude" and "class valedictorian" in two of them.

Marcos has claimed that she graduated as "class valedictorian" in Santa Catalina Convent, now called Santa Catalina School, in Monterey, California, for more than four decades. In March 21, 2019, no less than Santa Catalina School assistant head of school John Aimé disproved Imee's claims, stating: '[Imee Marcos] attended our school for a brief period in the fall of 1972, she is not a graduate.'

In January 2019, Princeton deputy university spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss stated that university records "do not show that Ms Marcos was awarded a degree," effectively proving that Marcos fabricated her Princeton degree.

On February 26, 2019, the student newspaper of Princeton, The Daily Princetonian, stated that Marcos falsely claims that she graduated from the university. In an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian, Hotchkiss repeated "Our records do not show that Ms. Marcos was awarded a degree."

After Imee's third educational attainment claim was disproved, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) refused to provide information on whether Marcos was enrolled or had graduated from their school, as Marcos has claimed through her government resume that she also earned a "MA Management and Business Administration (MA MBA)" from the school. AIM. However, on March 22, 2019, the Registrar and Student Enterprise Director of the school, Bryan Magbutay, reiterated, "In our 50 years of providing world class programs we never offered an MA MBA,” effectively disproving Imee's claims.

On January 25, 2019, Marcos tweeted that Ilocos Norte's poverty incidence rate lessened under her governorship; however, the very same tweet showed poverty incidence rate actually increased during her rule. Poverty reduction rate was 17% in 2006, while it dropped to 5% in 2015. The tweet was afterwards deleted.

Despite the senatorial campaign not yet in effect, Marcos began a premature senatorial campaign in numerous provinces. On January 17, 2019, the government of Cebu City took down political tarpaulins of Marcos that she ordered to be installed in the city during the Sinulog Festival. The city government criticized Marcos for 'politicizing' a religious festivity.

In her campaigns, she noted that she was a graduate of Princeton University in the United States. However, Princeton deputy university spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss stated that Imee's claim was false and completely fabricated, as she never graduated from Princeton University. At the same time, Imee's claim that she was a cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman was found to be fabricated. UP Executive Vice President Teodoro Herbosa noted that "there is no record of [Imee's] graduation from UPD (University of the Philippines Diliman) nor any honors or academic distinctions received with the University Registrar's office." During a February 9, 2019, senatorial debate, Marcos called on the government to remove term limits in elections, sparking criticism. Term limit removal was used by her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in the 1970s which led to a 21-year brutal regime. On March 6, 2019, amid Imee's fake degrees controversy, President Duterte's daughter, Sara Duterte, backed Marcos, stating, "Honesty should not be an election issue," effectively yielding to Imee's fabricated claims. Marcos has also claimed she graduated from Santa Catalina School as "class valedictorian" for more than four decades. In March 21, 2019, Santa Catalina School assistant head of school John Aimé disproved Imee's claims, stating: '[Imee Marcos] attended our school for a brief period in the fall of 1972, she is not a graduate.' After Imee's third educational attainment claim was disproved, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM)'s Registrar and Student Enterprise Director, Bryan Magbutay, reiterated, "In our 50 years of providing world class programs we never offered an MA MBA,” effectively disproving Imee's fourth educational attainment claim.

On January 25, 2019, Marcos tweeted that Ilocos Norte's poverty incidence rate lessened under her governorship; however, the very same tweet showed poverty incidence rate actually increased during her rule. Poverty reduction rate was 17% in 2006, while it dropped to 5% in 2015. The tweet was afterwards deleted. In April 2019, Marcos stated that she intends to make working abroad a "matter of choice", however, she dodged questions on her father's dictatorship - which led to the country's economic collapse, forcing Filipinos to work abroad in the first place.

On April 11, 2019, after China again reiterated its claims in the West Philippine Sea, Marcos announced that she "trusts China", falsely claiming that China never invaded any Philippine territory. She also blamed the Philippines, falsely claiming that Filipinos started the territorial conflicts with China, earning criticism from Filipinos.

After the 2019 Philippine Senate election, she placed ninth and won one of the twelve contested seats. On June 30, 2019, Marcos officially took office in the Senate and has already filed various bills during her first months including her own version of the SOGIE bill or the Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity or Expression Bill that was first filed by fellow Senator Risa Hontiveros.

On July 22, 2019, Marcos was appointed as chair of the Philippine Senate Cultural Communities Committee.

On August 6, 2019, Marcos filed a bill that would make men also liable for committing adultery.

To this, various sectors of the youth protested, releasing statements such as "She has no right to claim what our stand is on the issue. Not in our name, Imee Marcos," "The millennials, the youth in general, have not moved on and we will never move on from the Marcoses’ crimes against the Filipino people. Not until justice has been served to the thousands of Filipinos who were killed, abducted and tortured under their reign, we will not move on", "Binubuo pa lang ako ng magulang ko may utang na ako. Paano ako nagmo-move on Imee Marcos?" (I was still being formed by my parents in the womb, already I had debts. How can I move on, Imee Marcos?), "When your family’s in jail, when you return what you stole, when Marcos is taken out of Libingan ng mga Bayani, then we move on," and "The gall of Imee Marcos to ask why many have not “moved on” from the turbulent past they caused is like asking someone who got robbed to just think of the stolen item as donation. Sauli nyo mga ninakaw nyo! (Return what you stole!)"

Imee Marcos' time as a student at Princeton became a public issue once again in 2018, when she filed her candidacy for the Philippine Senate in the 2019 Philippine Midterm elections.

In 2018, she expressed her desire to run for senator "to bring back the Marcoses to Malacañang Palace one day."

Upon continued investigation and hearings, the House committee discovered that all the purchased vehicles "were overpriced by PHP21,450,000." The direct contractor who sold 40 units of mini cab was identified as Mark Chua, who is also currently Marcos' long-time boyfriend, who overpriced the mini cabs by PHP7,800,000 overall. The committee also verified the complaints from baranggay captains that the vehicles did not have registrations from the LTO. Committee Report No. 638 therefore concluded and recommended that charges be filed against Marcos, Chua, and several local officials. As of July 2018, another "fact-finding investigation" initiated by the Office of the Ombudsman is underway. If they find enough cause, the Ombudsman will then open a formal investigation.

In the conviction of her mother Imelda Marcos for seven counts of graft in November 2018, the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court found that illegal Swiss foundations were used to earn from investments and interests to benefit Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and their beneficiaries Imee Marcos, Bongbong Marcos, and Irene Marcos-Araneta.

In 2018, she expressed her desire to run for senator "to bring back the Marcoses to Malacañang Palace one day." She filed her certificate of candidacy on October 16, 2018, accidentally arriving at the same time as human rights advocate Chel Diokno, who was also filing his candidacy. Because Chel Diokno's crowds supported his human rights advocacy, political chants quickly transitioned into protest chants concerning the Marcos martial law legacy, including the traditional protest chants "Never Again to Martial Law" and "Marcos Hitler Diktador Tuta!" (Marcos: Hitler, Dictator, Lapdog"). Imee Marcos did not acknowledge either Chel Diokno or the protest chants of his supporters.

On November 10, 2018, the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan found that she and her siblings benefited from the illegal Swiss foundations that her mother, Imelda Marcos, created and maintained. On November 25, 2018, Marcos said that she intends to 'help' coco farmers once elected; however, she dodged questions regarding her family's involvement in the Coco Levy Fund scam, which used coco farmers to enrich the Marcos family and its cronies.

On August 21, 2018, the anniversary of the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. who had flown back to the Philippines to face her father, Imee Marcos told Filipinos to "move on" from the abuses, murders and massacres during her father's dictatorship. Imee Marcos stated "The millennials have moved on, and I think people at my age should also move on as well".

On March 2, 2017, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, along with Pampanga representatives Aurelio Gonzales Jr. and Juan Pablo Bondoc, filed House Resolution 882, which requested the House Committee on Good Government to "conduct an inquiry" about the misuse of PHP 66.45 million from Ilocos Norte's share of excise tax funds to obtain more than 110 units of motor vehicles. The resolution cited that the "highly irregular purchase" violated 2 republic acts—RA No. 7171, "An Act to Promote the Development of the Farmer in the Virginia Tabacco Producing Provinces," and RA No. 9184, "Government Procurement Reform Act --and 1 presidential decree: PD No. 1445, Government Auditing Code of the Philippines. The investigation began on May 2, 2017.

On July 24, 2017 hearing, six local officials confessed that they have access to tobacco excise tax funds used to pay 70 mini-trucks. Pedro Agcaoili, Eden Batulayan, Josephine Calajete, Encarnacion Gaor, Genedine Jambaro, and Evangeline Tabulog also acknowledged that their signatures were written on pertinent documents, a fact that they had previously denied. Marcos also admitted that the said mini-trucks were bought from a direct contractor, and was not up for public bidding, as was the protocol when government property is procured.

During the 3rd Sulong Pilipinas Convention last 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte named Imee as one of his campaign contributors, saying that she borrowed money to fund his campaign. However, Duterte's Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) does not include her as a donor. Imee denied the claim saying that she just helped him get votes from the Ilocos Region.

Prominent examples of statements by Imee Marcos which have received such criticism include her 2016 statement that she was "too young" to have any power during her father's administration (although she was already 31 years old in 1986), and her 2018 assertion that critics should just "move on" regarding the crimes and excesses of the martial law era.

Imee Marcos was married to golfer and former professional basketball coach Tommy Manotoc, but their marriage was controversial as the Philippines has no divorce law and Manotoc was still married to Aurora Pijuan at the time, officially making Marcos a mistress. Marcos and Manotoc have three sons: Fernando Martín ("Borgy"), a commercial model and club DJ; Ferdinand Richard Michael ("Mike"), a lawyer; and Matthew Joseph ("MJ"), a sports agent and the Senior Provincial Board Member (2nd district) of Ilocos Norte since June 30, 2016. She has two stepchildren through her marriage to Manotoc, including ABS CBN reporter and news anchor TJ Manotoc.

On her campaign website, Marcos uploaded an official biography that claimed that she was “one of the first female graduates from an Ivy League School—Princeton University, graduating with honors,” but this claim was quickly disproven by news reports and on social media. In addition, she had stated in her curriculum vitae during her stay at the House of Representatives that she had graduated with honors from Princeton with an Independent Major in Religion and Politics.

After returning from Princeton, Marcos entered the world of politics as chairperson of the Kabataang Barangay—the youth organization that would eventually be replaced by the Sangguniang Kabataan—in 1977. She was founding chair of the Kabataang Barangay Foundation from 1975 to 1986. During her stint, Archimedes Trajano was brutally murdered. She would later be convicted on the torture and killing of Trajano in later life.

Nine years after the killing of Archimedes Trajano, his mother, Agapita Trajano, pressed charges against Imee Marcos and her accomplices for "false imprisonment, kidnapping, wrongful death, and a deprivation of rights" of her son. Marcos and her lawyers did not deny that Trajano was tortured—instead, they argued that as agents of the state, the soldiers who killed Trajano were immune from suit in a foreign state. The Honolulu district court awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages, $1.25 million for mental anguish to Agapita Trajano and $246,966 in attorney's fees and costs against Imee Marcos for the murder of Archimedes Trajano, by Marcos's personal bodyguards. Imee Marcos retaliated by saying, "Yes, Archimedes Trajano was tortured and killed but it's none of your business."

Imee Marcos was named in the Offshore Leaks – Panama Papers, along with her three sons, Fernando Martin, Matthew Joseph, Ferdinand Richard Michael, her sister Irene Marcos, her brother-in-law Gregorio Maria Araneta III, and her estranged husband Tommy Manotoc's relatives Ricardo Gabriel Kalaw Manotoc and Teodoro Kalaw Manotoc. According to records uncovered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Imee and her three sons are beneficiaries of the Sintra Trust, which was formed in June 2002 in the British Virgin Islands. Other documents, the latest dated 2010, also name Imee as a financial adviser for the Sintra Trust as well as ComCentre Corporation, which was formed in January 2002 and is still in operation. She is also identified as a "master client" for the M Trust, which was formed in July 1997 and closed July 2009. However, these three offshore accounts do not appear in Imee's Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN). The SALN is required of all public officials and employees, and should include all of the officials' assets and liabilities.

Saying that this was a common occurrence because of the way Philipine society is structured, Imee Marcos asserted in a November 2012 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that:

In the book "Some Are Smarter Than Others," author Ricardo Manapat reveals that after the EDSA revolution, investigators of the Presidential Commission on Good Government found out that Imee Marcos' tuition, US$10,000 monthly allowance, and the 18th century estate Imee Marcos stayed in while studying at Princeton was paid for using taxpayer money that could be traced partly to the intelligence funds of the office of the president, and partly to some of the 15 bank accounts that the Marcoses had secretly opened in the US under assumed names.

In the 2010 elections, she ran as governor of Ilocos Norte against her cousin, Michael Marcos Keon, who was the governor during that time. She defeated her cousin in the elections. Imee had 196,160 votes while her cousin, Gov. Michael had 86,005 votes. She assumed office on June 30, 2010. She was re-elected as governor in the 2013 polls, unopposed. On October 16, 2015, she filed as a candidate for her third and final term. She was reelected in the 2016 elections.

In 2007, along with some industry luminaries, Imee Marcos established the Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CREAM). A year after CREAM evolved into CREAM Content Distribution, Inc., a production company that specializes in animation, game and film production. She is currently the president of CREAM.

In a 2002 interview with Philippine cinema academician Joel David, Marcos confirmed that she had "half-jokingly" named the “Experimental Cinema of the Philippines” as a reference to Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the institution founded during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini - a reference to a cinema institution put up under a prior dictatorship which Professor David surmised to also be a tease aimed at Imee's parents.

Twelve years after her family's exile, Marcos returned to the world of politics. She ran as Congresswoman of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte and won. She assumed office on June 30, 1998, and ended June 30, 2007.

Imee Marcos' entrance into politics, beginning with her term as congresswoman of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte in 1998, saw her taking over the position previously held by her brother, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who became governor of Ilocos Norte that same year. In the context of their mother Imelda Marcos' similar return to politics as congresswoman in Leyte in 1995, journalists and academics noted that the Marcoses had cemented a political dynasty after their return from exile, despite the explicit anti-dynasty provision in Article II Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines.

Marcos has been president and executive producer of Renegade Filmmakers since 1996.

Her conviction in the 1993 Trajano v. Marcos case (978 F 2d 493) before the U.S. district court in Honolulu, Hawaii, is noted in U.S. legal circles for exposing the weaknesses of the act of state doctrine, allowing for similar suits to be filed.

She then falsely claimed: "As we all know, these are political accusations that have not been proven in court." She was convicted before a U.S. district court through the 1993 Trajano v. Marcos case (978 F 2d 493).

In the book Some Are Smarter Than Others published in 1991 and written by Ricardo Manapat, the author detailed, "It appeared that Imee never had the proper qualification to enter the school and that her name never appeared in the list of approved graduates nor among the candidates endorsed for graduation by a committee."

After her family was able to return to the Philippines in the 1990s, she served three terms as Representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1998 until 2007 and then became governor of Ilocos Norte. She ran for a senatorial position in the 2019 Philippine general elections, and won a seat in the Senate of the Philippines.

Since her legal separation from Manotoc, Marcos has been in a long-term relationship with Singaporean and ethnic Chinese businessman and resident Mark Chua, since the 1990s. Marcos and Chua have been linked to the 64.5 million peso Ilocos Norte Tobacco Excise Tax Funds Scandal.

During her father's martial law rule, she played various political roles including chairperson of the Kabataang Barangay and as assemblyman to the Batasang Pambansa, during which Archimedes Trajano was murdered after he questioned the appointment of Imee Marcos as the director of the Kabataang Barangay. She turned 18 - age of majority in the Philippines - just fourteen months after her father's declaration of Martial Law, and was already 30 years old by the time the Marcoses were ousted from power after the 1986 People Power revolution, and escaped to Honolulu.

In another campaign meet-up, Marcos stated that she was "too young" to have any power during her father's dictatorship, and that she should not be blamed for the things she did due to her youth. However, records show that she was already 30 years old when her family was ousted from power in 1986.

On June 30, 1984, she won a seat as one of two assemblyman to the Batasang Pambansa for Ilocos Norte (the other assemblyman was Antonio V. Raquiza) under the wing of her father's dictatorship. She formally held this role until the Batasang Pambansa was dissolved in the aftermath of the 1986 EDSA Revolution, which ousted their family from power.

A few days after the University of the Philippines held its recognition ceremonies for 1983, a televised recognition ceremony held at the Meralco Theater showed Imee Marcos graduating, and being honored magna cum laude even though she had not actually graduated. The ceremony was pushed by her parents, Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos, who then controlled the Philippines under their conjugal dictatorship.

A viral Facebook post later circulated in the social platform, claiming that Imee graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1983 as a 'class valedictorian'. The post included an alleged yearbook, which had Marcos in it. The yearbook's authenticity was later proven to be false, as Marcos did not appear in any authenticated UP yearbook from 1983. Coincidentally, Marcos' eldest son Borgy was also born in 1983, making it impossible for Marcos to graduate from UP Law on time.

Increasing unrest springing from the economic collapse of the Philippines in the years after the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino in 1983 came to a head in February 1986, when the EDSA Revolution succeeded in unseating the Marcoses from Malacañang palace.

As the mid-1980s approached, the collapse of the Philippine economy forced government to reduce the budget of the ECP, and to raise funds, it began screening what critics deemed skin flicks, which were called "Bomba" or "Bold" films in the local slang. At around this time, Imee Marcos promoted Johnny Litton, who had been deputy director general to chief executive officer of the ECP under her, and Litton's decision to screen extremely explicit films such as Scorpio Nights (Regal Films), Company Of Women (Athena Productions, Inc.) and Hubo (lit. "Naked" FLT Films International) were scored by industry critics. By 1985 ECP was producing "about twenty sexually explicit quickies" which they hoped to screen at the three screening rooms of the National Film Center. The films were assured of a neat profit despite the few screening venues.

From 1979 to 1986, she was consultant to the minister of the National Media Production Center in Quezon City. From 1981 to 1986, she was director general of the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines (ECP) after recommendation from her parents, who were controlling the country through a conjugal dictatorship. She served as co-producer of the films The Boatman, Brutal, and Scorpio Nights, but was not listed as producer or co-producer of other ECP films.

The torture and killing of Archimedes Trajano was attributed to Imee Marcos, then the National Chairman of the Kabataang Barangay. "On August 31, 1977, Archimedes Trajano, a 21-year-old student of Mapua Institute of Technology, attended an open forum with Imee Marcos, 21-year-old daughter of the dictator. Her father had appointed her National Chairman of the Kabataang Barangay youth organization. When Trajano questioned her about her appointment, Imee apparently became irritated. Her guards seized Trajano and dragged him away. His body was found hours later: he had been severely tortured and beaten to death."

She withdrew from Princeton in 1976, returned in 1977, and then withdrew for the last time in 1979. She did not receive a degree from Princeton. She had flunked out, according to Princeton alumnus Richard Klein in the August 1983 issue of Town Topics.

From 1975 to 1986, Marcos produced the television shows Kulit Bulilit and Kaluskos Musmos. She was also a consultant/writer of the Children's Television Workshop for Asia and New York (1977–1979).

Marcos was columnist of Manila Bulletin (then known as Bulletin Today) in Manila, publisher of the Filipino Film Review, publisher and editor of the Kabataang Barangay Foundation, Makati, Metro Manila, and special consultant to the chairperson of the board of BBC-2, RPN 9, and IBC 13. She was also the producer of Metro Magazine (1975–1986).

In 1973, Imee Marcos enrolled in Princeton University, where she took a variety of courses in Religion and Politics, but never stated a major.

Marcos and her siblings (Ferdinand Jr. and Irene) were studying overseas before Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081 on September 21, 1972. The siblings stayed there until they ended their studies, but would come home for Christmas and summer holidays using government funds. She turned 18 - the Philippines' age of majority, fourteen months after the declaration of Martial Law, and played various political roles in the Martial Law administration - as chairperson of the Kabataang Barangay and as assemblyman to the Batasang Pambansa. She was already 30 when the People Power revolution finally deposed the Marcos administration in 1986.

The Sandiganbayan's 5th Division convicted former Imelda Marcos for creating and maintaining seven private foundations in Switzerland while holding government positions from 1968 to 1986. The Imee and her siblings were named as beneficiaries of two of the illegal foundations: the Trinidad Foundation and the Xandy Foundation.

Marcos grew up as a young child in the Malacañan Palace, the official residence of the president. She turned ten years old the day after her father was elected in 1965. In an interview with her family-backed Filipinas Magazine in 1999, she admitted that she was uncomfortable living in the palace because it was too confining, very formal, and fixed. She also added that it is "not necessarily the most appropriate place to bring up a kid but it was quite nice".

María Imelda Josefa "Imee" Romualdez Marcos (born November 12, 1955) is a Filipino politician currently serving as Senator of the Philippines since 2019. She is the daughter of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos.

Marcos was born on November 12, 1955, in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, as the eldest child of former president Ferdinand Marcos, and former first lady Imelda Marcos, both of whom exercised autocratic rule over the Philippines from December 1965 to February 1986. She has three other siblings: Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., a former senator and failed vice presidential candidate; Irene Marcos-Araneta,; and Aimee Marcos, who was adopted.