VICE President Sara Duterte believes President Marcos Jr. still trusts her amid her rift with the House of Representatives led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, who denied during the weekend talks of a supposed impeachment against the country’s second highest elected official.
“We’re okay,” the Vice President told reporters in Quezon City when asked how her working relationship with the President is affected by her differences with the House leadership.
“Well, I believe that I still have the trust of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,” she added.
Last week, Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) of the militant Makabayan bloc said there are ongoing talks about impeaching the Vice President, but these are “mere discussions of some congressmen and not a serious move.”
Romualdez denied there are moves to impeach the Vice President.
“I’m not aware of anything. Nothing filed, no news of that,” Romualdez told reporters in an interview at the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco, California.
Romualdez, who is part of President Marcos’ delegation for his six-day visit to the United States, said he does know where the impeachment rumors are coming from.
“I don’t know, I don’t know your sources but there’s nothing in the offing, nothing in general,” he said.
The Vice President’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, has been at loggerheads with the House leadership over its move to strip her of her requested confidential funds for 2024.
The House has realigned some P1.23 billion in confidential funds from several government agencies to efforts to boost security in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), which prompted the elder Duterte to defend his daughter and say that the chamber has hidden “pork barrel” and that it is the most rotten institution in the country.
Among the confidential funds that were realigned under the House-approved version of the proposed P5.268 trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2024 were the OVP’s P500 million and the Department of Education’s P150 million requests. VP Duterte is the concurrent education secretary.
The Vice President said the OVP is already “doing our due diligence about this one (impeachment) and we will release a comment (at the) appropriate time.”
Castro said the Vice President needs to explain how she spent her “illegal” P125 million confidential funds in 2022 instead of focusing on the “raw” impeachment talks.
“Para sa amin ito dapat ‘yung focus-an na isyu. ‘Yung mga usapin ng impeachment, hindi ‘yan naman ano, seryoso (To us, this should be the issue of focus, not the impeachment talks. That’s not serious),” she said.
NO PLANS
The Vice President said she has no ambition to seek the presidency in 2028 in the same way that she did not plan to run for vice president last year.
“Hindi ko naman talaga ambisyon na tumakbong vice president and lalong lalo na ang president. Alam nyo naman lahat ‘yan (It is not my ambition to run for vice president and especially, president. You all know that),” she said.
The younger Duterte was reacting her father who said she should not vie for the highest position of the land and leave it to her political rivals.
“Sinabi ko noon na hindi ko gustong tumakbong president. Lahat ng ginagawa natin (I have said it before that I do not want to run for president. Everything that we do), we can only plan but it will be truly God’s plan that will prevail,” the Vice President said.
The former president had earlier claimed that Romualdez was behind the attacks on his daughter because she is perceived as a good candidate for president in the 2028 presidential elections.
The elder Duterte alleged Romualdez is poised to run for president in the next elections.
‘PARTISAN INTRIGUES’
Meanwhile, House majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe urged the elder Duterte to spare the AFP and the PNP from “partisan intrigues” after he claimed that there is uneasiness in the two institutions because of the purported alliance between the Speaker and Castro, whom the former president has alleged is a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The elder Duterte insinuated that Romualdez has supposedly been wooing different groups to boost his presidential ambitions in 2025 and accused him of allegedly forging an alliance with Castro in filing a complaint against him for grave threats after he threatened the lawmaker on national television.
Dalipe said that Duterte’s statements on the alleged presidential ambition of Romualdez are not only “baseless but also premature.”
He said Duterte’s statements insinuating that the AFP and PNP are involved in political activities “are very unfair to the officers and enlisted personnel who have worked hard to restore the credibility and high level of professionalism of the uniformed service.”
Dalipe emphasized that as a former president, the ex-president “should prioritize the nation’s well-being over political interests, fostering an environment where the AFP and PNP can fulfill their duties without being entangled in divisive political agenda.”
“I respectfully appeal to former President Rodrigo Duterte to recognize the paramount importance of keeping our Armed Forces and National Police free from partisan politics.
These institutions serve as the bedrock of our nation’s security, and their effectiveness relies on unity and impartiality,” said Dalipe.
“We have already achieved so much in our quest to professionalize our military and police service. Let us not squander what we have accomplished by putting the AFP and the PNP in a bad light because of these baseless statements,” he also said.
“The AFP and the PNP have more important things to do than watching Congress, as claimed by the former President. Our uniformed service must be insulated from partisan activities and should maintain the highest degree of professionalism. Huwag na sana niyang idamay ang AFP at PNP (I hope he would spare the AFP and the PNP),” he said, adding that any form of partisanship in the two agencies “could undermine their professionalism and erode public trust.”
