OFFLINE: A new low for Imee Marcos

Senator Imee Marcos – does she still use her married name of Manotoc even if she and the sportsman have been separated for decades? – must think herself to be cute. Cool even.

She’s neither.

In the past couple of weeks, she has taken a number of cheap shots that have actually caused some consternation on the part of her family’s followers – the so-called D and E markets, also known as the poor.

When there was talk of people working 18 hours a day, she appeared to mock anyone who did so as stupid.

This was her reaction to Vice President Leni Robredo, who had stated matter-of-factly that working 18-hour days was the norm for her. Imee Marcos took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the hard working VP.

She appeared totally clueless on the millions of Filipinos who work long hours just to make ends meet. These can be hourly wage earners, or ordinary folk who work extra jobs in order to pay for life’s essentials, like food, clothing, and decent housing.

She then took one step further by appearing in some kind of political advertisement that made fun of a househelper named “Lenlen,” clearly alluding to Robredo.

That ad dared insult the widow who is both lawyer and economist, whom her college dropout of a brother is facing in this year’s presidential elections.

At the rate she is going, it is not clear how low Imee is willing to go in order for her family to return to Malacanang.

Because of her unkind cuts, she should be willing to receive as much as she is willing to give, if not more so.

She is a spoiled brat just like her brother. But she should be warned that her background is even worse. At a young age, she already broke up the marriage of Tommy Manotoc by becoming his mistress. The Pilipino word is ‘kabit,’ and this describes her perfectly.

After her relationship with the sportsman ended, she then shacked up with other men, most of whom she kept under the radar.

She has somewhat admitted being in a long distance relationship with a Singaporean, perhaps to justify her frequent sojourns to the city-state, which is where a portion of the ill-gotten wealth of her family is allegedly kept.

Since she has shown herself quite capable of throwing insults unbecoming of her status as senator, Imee should be willing to receive the same as well.

Yet this does not appear to be the case.

For the longest time, she has been the butt of jokes because of her rather prominent chin, to the point that she has been called Babalina, a comedienne who was the counterpart of the late Babalu, also a long-chinned comic wonder.

Imee has gone so far as to take to social media to tell everyone to stop sending her photos of herself beside another pointy-chinned lady, not Babalina.

The enemies she has made also like to call her ‘sandok’ or ladle, which fittingly describes the shape of her face.

Now personal insults may be too low even for her, and she is well within her rights if she were to take legal action against her attackers. Unfortunately, they number in the tens of thousands, perhaps even in the hundreds of thousands. So suing them is out.

She could cherry-pick those whose insults hurt the most.

There are, for example, those who continue to spread the rumor that she is not the biological daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The rumor mill asks why her brother Bongbong and sister Irene have a strong resemblance to each other, as well as their parents, but not to Imee.

A late Manila mayor with the same surname as a current presidential candidate – no, I do not refer to Isko Moreno AKA Domagoso or however he spells his real name – is said to be her true father. No need to spread such arsenic or poison, as it would be in bad taste.

Only Imelda knows for sure, and she definitely isn’t talking.

But going back to the 18-hour workday, I happen to know a lot of people who are workaholics, not out of choice but out of necessity. There are, for example, the maintenance people and security guards in the building where I reside. There is also a personal friend, a male nurse who worked non-stop for months during the height of the pandemic until he collapsed out of sheer exhaustion.

These people worked double shifts plus overtime with no days off for months.

Then there are the small businessmen and women who own sari-sari stores and other similar enterprises. Go to any public or private market and you will see them struggling through the day, never complaining because they do so out of love of family.

I do not expect Imee Marcos to understand their plight.

Like her brother, she has never worked a day in her life. Nor has she had to finish her college studies.

Oh yes, it is not only Bongbong who has a fake degree. Imee also enrolled at one of the biggest and most expensive universities in the planet — paid for by taxpayers’ money, naturally, — but failed to complete her chosen course.

What for? She and her mother, brother, and sister will never want for money. They never have to work. Their future was already taken cared of courtesy of the grand larceny perpetrated by their old man, who must now be screaming in pain on a daily basis in hell for all the crimes he committed against the Filipino people and nation.

Incidentally, during my time as a full time newspaperman, 18-hour days were nothing. That lasted several decades and I still wonder how I survived.

Imee Marcos knows nothing about hard-working Pinoys. If she did, she would have kept her mouth shut. It shouldn’t be too hard. Her long, heavier-than-normal chin actually makes talking nonsense a whole lot harder, compared to ordinary folk like you and me.