MANILA - Senator-elect Imee Marcos on Wednesday said her family was not seeking vindication when she was fielded to run for senator in the midterm polls.

Marcos, who placed 8th in Senate elections with 15,882,628 votes, said she will just focus on her work in the upper chamber of Congress and asked her family’s critics to not worry about her intentions.

“Alam niyo napakarami na naming pinagdaanan. Hindi na namin inaalala ang vindication,” Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of the proclamation of the winning senators at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

“Sa lahat ng mga bashers, mga haters, mga galit sa amin, huwag na kayong matakot sa akin kasi hindi naman ako mapaghiganti. Gagawa lang tayo ng trabaho.”

(Our family has been through a lot. But we are not seeking vindication. To all our bashers and haters, don’t be afraid of me because I am not a vengeful person. I will just do my job.)

Marcos’ Senate win marks another milestone in her family’s bid for a political comeback, years after the fall of its patriarch, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, through a popular revolt in 1986.

• Imee Marcos dodges negatives in first Senate bid

Marcos joined the Senate race as her brother, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., continues to pursue his electoral protest against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who he claims cheated him.

Observers had viewed Ferdinand Jr.’s vice-presidential bid as a stepping stone for an eventual presidential run in 2022.

Asked whether the Marcos family will field a presidential candidate in 2022, Marcos said: “Hindi nga makaupo si Bongbong eh, labis naman iyon. Naging senador na si Bongbong noon, this is not that big a deal.”

(Bongbong could not even sit as vice-president. Bongbong became a senator before. This is not a big deal.)

“Napakalayo pa noon. Nagre-recover pa ako sa 2019 at hilo pa kami sa 2016,” she added.

(That’s still too far. We are still recovering from 2019 and still dizzy from 2016)

Marcos said she will “hit the ground running” as senator and will prioritize legislative pieces aimed at alleviating poverty.

“Dala dala ko ang karanasan ko sa local government, ang napakaraming pagkukulang sa ating maliliit na barangay, sa mga bukid, liblib na lugar, sa agrikultura, sa ating mahihirap,” she said.

(I am bringing my experience in local government, and my knowledge of what’s lacking in our small villages, farms, far-flung areas, and the agriculture sector.)

“Everything is going to be poverty alleviation-driven as far as my programs are concerned.”

She is touting such advocacies in the backdrop of a family history which critics say is marked by plunder, repression, and foreign debt that Filipinos are still paying for until this day.