VICE President Sara Duterte sees nothing wrong with having 433 security escorts, saying even the Commission on Audit “found no adverse findings on the creation of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG).”
In a statement, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) said and comparisons between Duterte’s security personnel and those of former vice presidents “are absurd and completely lacking basis.”
“The deployment of VPSPG personnel largely depends on the assessment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. The OVP remains grateful to the AFP and PNP for supporting the VPSPG,” the statement said.
In 2021, the OVP reported a total workforce of 535, including 204 personnel holding plantilla positions and 331 non-plantilla. Only 78 were military personnel listed under its security detail.
The OVP noted that the Vice President has so far had 588 engagements since July 1, 2022.
It said the VPSPG was created to have a group independent from the Presidential Security Group (PSG).
“The VPSPG will wholly provide all future Philippine Vice Presidents with necessary security and protection, a fundamental task that it will inevitably perform even when the Vice President and the President face the misfortune of having a relationship strained or broken by political differences – a troubling situation we have seen during the past administration,” the OVP said.
The OVP also pointed out that apart from being the second-highest elected official of the country, Duterte is also concurrent Education secretary, the co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and president of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization.
In its disclosure of its total manpower complement attached to the latest Commission on Audit (COA) report, the OVP listed 174 officials and employees with plantilla positions and 509 non-plantilla or detailed staff members, for a total of 683 personnel.
Of that total, 433 were listed under the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG), making it the single biggest section of the OVP at 63 percent of the total personnel headcount.
In its disclosure submission, the OVP listed two presidential appointees, 70 co-terminus staff, 72 permanent personnel, and 29 contractual and casual employees with plantilla positions.
On the other hand, for the non-plantilla positions, it has 70 contract of service personnel, three consultants, three DFA protocol officers, and 433 VPSPG details.
