Former President Rodrigo Duterte (L) and Vice President Sara Duterte | PHOTOS: Official Facebook pages of Rody Duterte and Inday Sara Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers have refuted Vice President Sara Duterte’s allegation that they are using the issue about her office’s secret funds to discredit her, saying that attacking a sitting vice president was the game plan of the previous administration.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez and La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega V were asked about Duterte’s claims that lawmakers are attacking her because vice presidents are always perceived to be aiming for the presidency.
Gutierrez disputed her allegation.
“Maybe that’s the playbook of the previous administration, but as far as we’re concerned, I don’t care who the president will be in 2028. What we care about is the budget now, that is what I can say about any supposed ploy that there might be,” Gutierrez said.
Ortega, meanwhile, said Duterte may have come up with this conclusion out of familiarity.
“Siguro familiar sila dun, ‘no? Noong nakaraang administrasyon. Hindi naman po attacks kasi ‘yong ginagawa namin, we’re focusing on the issues,” he said.
(Maybe they are familiar with that because that’s what happened in the past administration. We are not attacking, we’re focusing on the issues.)
“Karamihan naman kasi nung mga nire-raise niya na parang problema, ‘yong parang ina-atake siya, karamihan naman nung mga sinabi niya, parang siya nag-a-attack sa sarili niya, parang self-inflicted kasi,” he added.
(Most of the problems she raised, her feeling that she is being attacked, most of these attacks came from her, it seems to be self-inflicted.)
In March 2021, then Vice President Leni Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez lamented that the administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte seemed to be more interested in attacking Robredo rather than solving issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
READ: Leni camp: Admin spends more time bashing Robredo than solving problems
In January 2021, Gutierrez asked former Overseas Workers Welfare Association Deputy Executive Director Mocha Uson to spare Robredo’s office from her “silliness” as she blamed Robredo and her supporters for rumors circulating about her alleged romance with actor Robin Padilla, which Uson debunked.
READ: OVP spokesman tells Mocha Uson: Don’t drag us into your nonsense
In a video released by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Wednesday, Duterte claimed that the criticisms she was receiving were borne out of a desire to put down a vice president presumed to be after the presidency.
“Unang-una, mensahe ko sa ating mga kababayan, huwag silang magpadala sa ingay ng politika. Kung makikita natin sa kasaysayan, lagi talagang inaatake ang vice president dahil siya ‘yung tinitingnan ng mga tao na baka magiging sunod na presidente,” she said.
(My message to my fellow Filipinos, they should not be swayed by political noise. If we can see in history, they always attack the vice presidents because people see them as possibly the next presidents.)
“So, lahat ng mga gustong tumakbong presidente ay uunahin nila atakihin talaga ang vice president. Kaya ‘wag sila magpadala sa ingay ng paninira at pulitika,” she added.
(So, of all those aspiring to be presidents, they attack the vice president first. That’s why the people should not be swayed by efforts to discredit and politics.)
Ortega maintained that the House of Representatives has always stuck with the issues at hand, noting that discussions revolve on budgetary concerns.
“In the House of Representatives, we have been, from the start, even during press conferences, if there are issues, we stick with the issues. If there is a critique, after we critique, after we look into the deeper content, we offer solutions. We discuss these based on issues, that is clear,” he said.
Duterte is currently under fire after budget hearings at the House revealed issues on the OVP’s confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, and anomalies in the delivery of projects of the Department of Education, when she was the Education secretary.
Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said on Tuesday that Duterte may be liable for graft if she cannot explain how the funds were spent, particularly items with adverse findings from the Commission on Audit (COA).
The COA issued a notice of disallowance on P73.2 million of the OVP’s P125-million CF for 2022 — an item that several lawmakers said should not be available in the first place as the original budget crafted under Robredo did not have such.
READ: VP Sara Duterte may be liable for graft – Dalipe
Lawmakers also blasted Duterte for skipping the budget deliberations of the OVP on Tuesday — the second round of discussions as talks were deferred last August 27.
Deliberations were deferred as Duterte refrained from directly answering lawmakers’ questions, replying by saying that she either forgoes the opportunity to defend the OVP budget in a question-and-answer format, or by insisting that they have already coordinated with the COA regarding the notice of disallowance.
READ: OVP’s 2025 budget talks deferred anew; panel terminates hearings