In a bizarre moment more akin to a parody than a government press conference, Vice President Sara Duterte delivered an incoherent, disjointed rant against President Bongbong Marcos.
The nearly two-hour long diatribe was delivered in front of the media, who despite being out of shot in the livestream, were evidently confused at what was transpiring. Among the many lowlights of the press conference were VP Duterte’s threat to excavate the grave of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the president’s late father, and dump his body into the West Philippine Sea.
Duterte also admitted to having fantasized “pulling off” Marcos Jr.’s head after allegedly humiliating a young graduate, and also said that she was changing the tagline of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to: “Drag me to hell”.
When political actors stage these types of antics, there tends to be a political outcome being achieved. The garrulous nature of the Vice President’s press rambling almost made it seem like there weren’t any.
But viewing Duterte’s press conference in the wider context of the recent inquiries in the House of Representatives (HoR) on the Vice President’s anomalous spending both in the OVP and in her previous role as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).
The recent HoR inquiry found that Duterte’s OVP spent a staggering Php16 million in just eleven days to pay for a suite of safe houses. Why her office would even require safe houses in the first place was confusing enough, but instead of clearing the air on this substantial spend, VP Duterte used her press conference to say that it was not uncommon for government agencies to spend exorbitant amounts for their projects.
That isn’t the only questionable use of taxpayer funds that an office under Duterte is implicated in. The House hearing also flagged an expense of Php15 million by the DepEd, allegedly for the implementation of youth leadership summits (YLS) – which provides young Filipinos with military-style training as an anti-insurgency measure.
Yet the House inquiry discovered that these YLS programs were actually being funded by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and various local government units (LGUs) instead. This places a large question mark on where the Php15 million was spent after all.
Scrutinizing how that Php15 million was spent would be a tall order, given that the purported funds used were what is known as “confidential funds”. It can be remembered that Duterte’s frivolous use of these clandestine funds – intended for defense and intelligence agencies – also became an issue earlier in her term.
A major critique about Duterte’s use of confidential funds was the sheer speed in which she spent it – reportedly disbursing Php125 million of such funds in a few days’ back in 2022. That rash spending would later be flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA), with a large bulk of that spend – a whopping Php73 million – later disallowed by the auditing agency for alleged impropriety.
Scrutinizing VP Duterte’s use of confidential funds became the focal point of her OVP’s 2025 budget proposal, as House lawmakers grilled her on the scope and character of these expenditures. Yet instead of providing answers, the Vice President went on the offensive during those House inquiries – choosing instead to attack the legislators who questioned her improper spending.
Duterte’s inability to provide any straightforward answers only invites further interrogation into her spending. Under immense pressure, it is understandable why the Vice President would want to create distractions – such as her erratic press conference on 18 October.
Although she made a fool of herself, Duterte is hoping that her bizarre showing in front of the media would instead make news headlines rather than her offices’ anomalous expenses. But the oddity of Duterte’s demeanor has no bearing on the nation, the use of taxpayer funds does.
We must not afford VP Duterte the satisfaction of losing focus on her suspect use of public funds. Our attention must firmly be on Duterte’s anomalous spending, anything else is a distraction.