‘We’re not talking, we’re not friends’: Philippine V-P Sara Duterte on President Marcos

MANILA - Vice-President Sara Duterte on Sept 18 clarified that she and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr are “not friends” despite being

running mates in the 2022 elections.

Ms Duterte said this in response to questions about whether she and the President had met or talked about the issues thrown against her.

“None, we are not talking. We are not friends in the first place, we just met because we were running mates. So, even before we became running mates, we had not talked already,” Ms Duterte said in a doorstop interview on the sidelines of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing.

“We only talked during the campaign and at work. My friend is Senator Imee Marcos, she has known me since 2012. When I tendered my resignation, that was the last time President Marcos and I talked,” she added.

It was unclear how Ms Duterte arrived at that statement, but the Vice-President previously said that even after her resignation as Education Secretary, she and Mr Marcos remained friends.

In fact, Ms Duterte has been featured several times – at least four instances – in Mr Marcos’ vlog. The Vice-President was seen in the vlog when the pair were candidates for the 2022 polls, as well as after their election, in a 2023 New Year edition.

In that vlog, Mr Marcos and Ms Duterte tried to read each other’s fate and exchanged wishes for the new year.

Marcos’ intervention?

When asked if she thinks President Marcos can intervene to fix the supposed dispute between her and the House of Representatives, led by her former campaign manager, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Ms Duterte said it is not like her to ask for help.

“You know, many people do not know me, but I will say something about my attitude. I do not ask for help, my dad knows that, he became mayor, he became the president, but I still did not ask for help,” she said. “So when I approached Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo, I told her: ‘Ma’am don’t stress yourself about what they are doing to me, I can handle it.’ I told the same thing to Congressman Rodante Marcoleta.”

Ms Duterte was in the Batasang Pambansa complex for the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which was convened to discuss the privilege speech of Manila 2nd District Representative Rolando Valeriano on Sept 3.

Mr Valeriano questioned the presentation made by the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) during the deliberations on its 2025 budget, particularly the status of its aid programmes that were reportedly limited within the National Capital Region from 2023 to 2025.

Political attack

According to the lawmaker, the OVP stated in its 2025 budget proposal that there are 977,615 beneficiaries. However, Mr Valeriano said it cannot be ascertained if the beneficiaries are real people and not ghost beneficiaries.

Ms Duterte claimed that the new hearing aims to discredit her name and the OVP.

“What we are witnessing now is no ordinary legislative inquiry. This exercise is a well funded and coordinated political attack. This much is evident from the very words of the privilege speech that prompted this inquiry. A speech that simply meant to say: Do not vote for Sara in 2028,” she said.

“It is clear to me that this inquiry is not about misused funds, accountability or governance; instead, it is only aimed at discrediting my name and my office to prevent future political contests.”

Ms Duterte and the OVP are currently under fire after budget hearings at the House revealed issues about confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, and anomalies in the delivery of projects.

Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe previously said Ms Duterte may be held liable for graft if she cannot explain how funds were spent, particularly items with adverse findings from the Commission on Audit (COA).

The COA issued a notice of disallowance on 73.2 million pesos (S$1.7 million) of the OVP’s 125 million peso confidential fund for 2022 – an item that several lawmakers said should not be available in the first place, as the original budget crafted under former vice-president Leni Robredo did not have such an amount.
CEBU DAILY NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK