Solon agrees with VP Sara Duterte: Let’s release all travel docs

Vice President Sara Duterte —Inquirer photo/Lyn Rillon

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker has agreed with Vice President Sara Duterte’s call to release all the travel documents of House of Representatives members, noting that no one is afraid to make public their trips abroad.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Deputy Speaker and Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo Puno was asked about Duterte’s dare to release House members’ international travel, amid criticisms of her frequent overseas trips.

According to Puno, there are two kinds of travel though—official, which is paid by the government, and personal, which means an official is on leave. Puno said he has no qualms releasing his travel history for both personal and official trips.

READ: OVP: No info on Sara Duterte’s whereabouts

“I agree, let’s release our travel documents. There are two kinds of travel, official travel and personal travel. Personal travel is not paid by the government, official travel is paid by the government. Personal travel is deducted from your leaves, it’s considered as your personal time. This is important as all of us have a duty to be present at our offices,” Puno said.

“Let’s release our official travel, if they want even our personal trips, I agree with that. But I think no one is afraid of that here in Congress. Everyone is here, you can see that. So if there are some who make trips, let’s just say that we should release all of these documents,” he added.

Puno said travel documents can be compared with actual travel to deduce whether government officials made trips while still on duty and not on leave.

“Then we compare that with our actual travel. Because if your official travel is small and your personal travel is bigger, then we have to know if you did the latter using your own time or at a period that you were supposed to be paid in office,” he said.

Duterte’s dare came after she was asked whether her habitual absence can affect the approval and the status of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget for 2026.

In response, Duterte said that the accusation was baseless.

“Habitual absence where? I don’t even know what they’re talking about when they say habitual absence. As I’ve said, this is just the same tactic used by anti-Duterte people, throwing around accusations left and right without any basis or evidence,” she said.

“You know, baseless accusations are nothing but smear tactics which is what they always do,” she added.

According to Duterte, she has been traveling not because she wants to, but out of a need to check Filipino communities abroad who are allegedly frustrated with what is happening in the Philippines.

The Vice President also noted that he needs to visit her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is detained at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, the Netherlands.

ICC took custody of older Duterte last March 11, due to an arrest order for the crimes against humanity cases that he is facing.

“I don’t travel because I want to. I go abroad because Filipino communities overseas are frustrated with what’s happening in our country, and secondly, I visit my father who is in detention,” Duterte added.

Duterte also said she expects the House to cut her office’s proposed P903-million budget for 2026, noting that a similar outcome is possible as the administration and the House leadership has not changed.

The Vice President has made several overseas trips in a short span, starting in May when she traveled to the Netherlands; then to Malaysia and Australia in June; and back to the Netherlands again and South Korea in July.

Duterte’s recent overseas trips have spanned several months—beginning in May where she traveled to the Netherlands; to Malaysia and Australia in June; and then once again to the Netherlands and South Korea in July. /cb