Palace: Sara Duterte claims gov’t left OVP behind ‘to look pitiful’
Vice President Sara Duterte meets with overseas Filipino workers at Southorn Stadium in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, on March 9, 2025. The event, titled “Pasasalamat kay PRRD with OFWs,” is intended to express gratitude for the support given to her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte. SCREENGRAB FROM SMNI CHANNEL VIDEO
MANILA, Philippines — Palace Press Officer Claire Castro on Monday belied Vice President Sara Duterte’s claim that the Marcos government left the Office of the Vice President (OVP) behind.
During the Palace briefing, Castro said Duterte just wanted to gain sympathy from the public.
“That is what they want to convey—to make the OVP look pitiful, to make the Vice President appear pitiful,” she said in Filipino.
Duterte made the allegation during a campaign sortie for Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban’s senatorial candidates in Hong Kong last Sunday.
“Thank you for your support to me, to my colleagues in our work, and to the programs and projects of the Office of the Vice President. Thank you very much to all of you because you are the only ones supporting the OVP. The entire government has left the OVP behind,” she said in Filipino.
While Duterte did not elaborate on why and how the government supposedly left behind the OVP, Castro pointed out that the OVP was given a chance to defend its budget before Congress.
READ: Sara Duterte, OVP rep no-show yet at House plenary debate on budget
“If we really think about it, she was given the opportunity to defend and justify her proposed budget. There is no attempt to block the proper allocation of funds for the OVP, as long as she can clearly explain it,” Castro in Filipino.
“It’s like a thesis—if you submit one, you need to defend it. You can’t just tell your panel of judges, ‘It’s up to you to give me a grade; that’s my thesis.’ So, no one abandoned her—perhaps she is the one who abandoned the government,” she added.
Castro also belied Duterte’s claim that she was scammed by the “UniTeam” in the 2022 national elections.
Duterte was the running mate of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2022 elections.
“If she claims to have been scammed by UniTeam, isn’t it the other way around? Perhaps the members of UniTeam never expected that VP Sara would spend the P125 million in confidential funds in just 11 days. They likely entrusted her with it, not thinking that it would be used up so quickly,” she said in Filipino.
READ: VP ‘purposely’ did not comply with COA requirement to list CF recipients
