400 AFP officers securing VP Duterte? That’s excessive, solon says

MANILA, Philippines — Having 400 military officers securing Vice President Sara Duterte is excessive, Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez said on Wednesday.

Responding to questions about Duterte’s security, Fernandez in a press briefing at the Batasang Pambansa complex said that if the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has 150,000 personnel and if the Philippines has over 7,600 islands, 2,000 of which are inhabited, only 75 soldiers can be assigned to each island.

However, having 400 soldiers under Duterte’s security detail reduces the number of personnel the AFP can deploy.

“With AFP, which stated that she (Duterte) has — I’m just not sure if this is confirmed that she has 400 AFP personnel securing her, but if it is, we will base it on analytical data and mathematical computation regarding the distribution of security […] since we have 150,000 AFP personnel, if you spread that to 2,000 islands, you will have 75 soldiers assigned to each island.

“If VP Sara has 400 soldiers assigned to her, and we have 75 soldiers per island, I think that is excessive and that is somehow irrational. Being a public official we must be prudent, right, to see the bigger budget of our government,” Fernandez said.

Furthermore, the lawmaker said Duterte should just be thankful that she gets a security detail of this number, as the AFP also has a lot of duties to fulfill.

“And the work of the AFP is [addressing] the external threats, right, and I hope that with the 400 personnel given to her, I think she has to be thankful to the government for giving that number,” he said.

On Tuesday, AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said that around 400 military personnel are under Duterte’s security and protection group. The announcement comes after the Philippine National Police (PNP) removed 75 of its personnel from Duterte’s security detail to address deployment shortages.

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

According to the 2022 Commission on Audit report on the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Duterte’s Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group had 433 members.

Address other issues first

Aside from Fernandez, lawmakers from the House of Representatives “Young Guns” group also called out Duterte, urging her to focus on her duties and stop diverting issues.

Zambales 1st District Rep. Jay Khonghun and La Union 1st District Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V said that Duterte should instead address her absence during the height of Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon’s onslaught.

“Ma’am, kayo po ang wala sa bansa nang bayuhin ng super typhoon Carina ang mga Pilipino. Nasa bakasyon po kayo (You were out of the country when Carina struck the Philippines. You were on vacation). Please naman po, do your duty as the country’s No. 2 official,” Khonghun said.

“The last we heard from her was when she left with her entourage at the height of super typhoon Carina, while the President and all of us were preparing for the storm’s onslaught,” Ortega added.

Also, both lawmakers urged Duterte to respond to other issues like the confidential funds lodged with the OVP in 2022 when there were no allocations made when the budget was originally crafted.

“Hanggang ngayon hindi ipinapaliwanag ni Ma’am Sara sa mga tao kung papaano niya nagastos ng 11 days ang P125 million confidential funds,” Khonghun recalled.

(Until now, Ma’am Sara has not explained to the public how she spent the P125 confidential funds for 2022 in just 11 days.)

“May issue rin ng extra-judicial killings noong mayor kayo, ang tahimik nyo?” Ortega asked. “Tama na po ‘yung reklamo, Ma’am. Magtrabaho po tayo at tulong-tulong tayo para mapaunlad ang bansa. I am appealing to our Muslim brothers, and our countrymen in general, to take the contents of Ma’am Sara’s letter with a grain of salt.”

(There were also issues on extra-judicial killings when you were mayor, but you’re silent about this. Please stop complaining Ma’am. Let’s just work together for the betterment of the country.)

INQUIRER.net has sought the OVP’s side on the matter, but officers said they will wait for Duterte to respond.

Fernandez and the lawmakers’ comments came after Duterte earlier said the issue of police-to-population ratio in the country cannot be solved “during our lifetime.”

The Vice President said this still in response to claims by the PNP leadership, particularly police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil, that the reassignment of 75 police officers attached to her security detail was borne out of a shortage of cops in Metro Manila.

This is not the first time that Duterte was chided for her comments about the recall of her police security. Last July 30, Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said that Duterte should respect the PNP’s decision and refrain from politicizing it, noting that the number of her security staffers was only reduced and not depleted.

Former lawmaker Barry Gutierrez, who served as OVP spokesperson under former vice president Leni Robredo, said that Duterte’s reduced security detail was still three times bigger than that of his then boss.