Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Reveals Changing Travel Plans
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President issued a statement on the issuance of a Travel Authority by the Office of the President.
It is no secret to the Filipino people that the President and the Vice President are not in good terms for a lot of reasons. Vice Pres. Duterte previously claimed that there was both personal and work reasons behind her resignation from being the secretary of the Department of Education in 2024.
The resignation of Duterte as DepEd Secretary gave the people a hint on the souring relationship between the highest officials in the government. The gap between Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Dutertes became wider following the arrest and the detention of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Amid the political turmoil in the Philippine government, impeachment complaints were recently filed against the Vice President anew. She is being questioned about the controversial spending of the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) as well as DepEd when she was the education secretary.
Two (2) impeachment complaints against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte were found substance in form, substance, and grounds by the House Justice Committee. Here are some of the grounds raised against the Vice President:
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount over PHP 500 million confidential funds (CF) allocated to the Office of the Vice President from 2022 to 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in amassing and converting the amount of not less than PHP 112.5 million of confidential funds allocated to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the year 2023
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust by corrupting and bribing officials of the DepEd
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes in contracting to murder or assassinate the president, the first lady, and the former speaker of the House
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in amassing unexplained wealth and failing to disclose all her properties and interests in properties in her SALN
- Alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust in committing acts of political destabilization and the high crimes of sedition and insurrection
Aside from her alleged misuse of the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte has been receiving criticisms as well due to her frequent travel abroad. The Vice President asserted that she is using her personal money and some of her travels were to personally meet the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Recently, amid the pending impeachment complaints against her, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte was issued by the office of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. an authority to travel to Europe. The overseas trips are supposedly set to run from April 23 to May 15.
According to Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte intends to visit Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Korea. Recently, the Vice President issued a statement revealing that she has changed her travel plans.
Based on a statement posted on her social media account, the release of the travel authority for Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is allegedly done by the Office of the President “last-minute” and she has already changed her plans as she had no certainty when it will be issued.
Amid the House proceedings, Senate Pres. Tito Sotto recently revealed that he met with some majority senators over the impeachment complaints against Duterte.
