400 AFP personnel assigned to VP Duterte’s security group – spox

MANILA, Philippines — Around 400 Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) personnel are under Vice President Sara Duterte’s security and protection group, according to spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla.

“Around 400 plus remained in terms of AFP personnel,” Padilla said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

She explained that the increase in the number of Duterte’s security detail members was due to the fact that the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) is now under the Presidential Security Command (PSC).

READ: VP Duterte: PNP pulls out 75 cops assigned for my security

This was in compliance with an assignment of unit order issued by AFP on July 9, designating the VPSPG-AFP as a “subordinate unit” of the PSC.

Padilla added that the deployment of personnel and their requirement for every engagement depends on Security Task Action Group commanders.

Last July 23, Duterte confirmed that the Philippine National Police (PNP) pulled out all 75 members of her security group.

A week later, on July 29, the vice president slammed PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil for his alleged lies concerning the withdrawal of her police protection detail “immediately” after she resigned from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet, her comment on his State of the Nation Address, and the circulation of the Chief Executive’s video online where he was supposedly using illegal drugs.

She likewise called the removal of her 75 police security a “clear case of political harassment” and claimed that the national police were “casing” her residence.

READ: Sara Duterte: Removal of my PNP security a ‘political harassment’ 

PNP leadership denied this, saying that “there’s no truth” to Duterte’s allegations.

According to PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo, she is not “at liberty to disclose” Marbil’s reaction, adding that he remained engaged in his duties despite the “political noise.”