Palace pokes fun at Imee Marcos’ ‘ITIM’ ad: Try sun bleaching (2025)

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday took a jab at the latest campaign ad of Sen. Imee Marcos, which featured Vice President Sara Duterte and depicted the darkness supposedly engulfing the country under the presidency of Imee’s brother.

The ad, dubbed “ITIM,” the Filipino word for black, which also stands for “Inday Trusts Imee Marcos,” showed the two allies in dark attire to convey the country’s “current color’’ amid rising hunger, crime, and other social ills.

In rebuttal, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said the administration of President Marcos had been addressing the socioeconomic problems inherited from Sara’s father, ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, the way one would do the day’s laundry.

“Oh, I thought it was a 2022 campaign ad because it appropriately described the previous administration,” Castro said when asked to comment on the 31-second ITIM ad.

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“We can probably describe the past administration as intensely black and is now headed towards a brighter state under the present administration. It might not be that white, but it’s on its way to becoming white,” she said.

Achieving whiteness

She used sun bleaching, or “kula” in Filipino, as a metaphor for the Marcos administration’s efforts to turn the country around.

“We’re on our way to achieving whiteness. It just needs a little more sun bleaching; it’s already becoming whiter. It’s not yet perfectly white, though,” Castro said.

In the ad, the Vice President said, “Black is the current color of the country. [We are] mourning hunger and criminality.”

Marcos agreed: “[We are not only] starving for food but starving for justice, [while they are] oppressing non-allies.”

In an online press briefing, Marcos said it was the Vice President who came up with the idea for the ad.

“I asked, why is it black? She wanted it to be black to symbolize that the country and a lot of Filipino people are suffering, over hunger, justice… For her, it symbolizes mourning,” she said. “It seems like it’s not appropriate to dance or to ride on a motorcade while the public is suffering.”

Duterte arrest

The campaign ad put to rest weeks of speculation about the relationship between Imee Marcos and Duterte following the arrest last month of the Vice President’s father on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ex-president has since been in ICC custody at The Hague, the Netherlands, on the charge of committing murder as a crime against humanity when he waged his bloody war on drugs.

Imee Marcos, who is seeking reelection, later launched a Senate inquiry into the legality of Malacañang’s cooperation in the Interpol mission to arrest the elder Duterte and have him turned over to the ICC.

She also broke away from the President’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas’ senatorial ticket, saying she couldn’t accept the government’s actions on Duterte’s arrest.