‘I won’t resign’: Duterte defies calls after skipping budget deliberations

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday, September 25, said she would not yield to calls for her resignation after skipping House budget deliberations, saying that she answers only to the 32 million Filipinos who voted for her and not to lawmakers.

“I will not answer to the ‘Young Guns’ because I need to answer to the 32 million people who voted for me. Not just to two people. I will not leave because people put me here… for the country,” Duterte said.

She was referring to the “Young Guns” bloc in the House composed of Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Adiong, La Union 1st district Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega, Zambales 1st district Rep. Jefferson Khonghun and Isabela 6th district Rep. Faustino Dy.

Speaker Romualdez said on Wednesday he respects the opinion of some House members who recently urged Duterte to step down due to her decision to skip budget hearings of her agency.

“All congressmen have ideas, they have their own opinions,” Romualdez said at a press conference after attending the sixth Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council meeting at Malacañang.

Romualdez said the House would come up with a resolution on the vice president’s absence in the House budget deliberations.

“Before tonight we will come into a resolution and that would be the act of the plenary so instead of listening to individual opinions or comments, as you know in Congress we act as a consensus,” Romualdez said at the press conference at Malacañang with Senate President Francis Escudero.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit (COA) confirmed during the House probe on Wednesday that the P125-million confidential funds received by Duterte in December 2022 has been liquidated, but also said it is beyond her mandate to be given such a budget.

According to Gloria Camora of the COA-Intelligence and Confidential Audit Office, documents showed that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was able to submit a liquidation of the secret funds which were spent in only 11 days or from Dec. 20 to Dec. 31, 2022.

But upon questioning of Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, Camora said they issued a “notice of disallowance” covering P73 million of the P125 million because the documents submitted by OVP were insufficient.

According to Camora, the P125 million includes funding for surveillance operations in 132 areas. COA audit team leader Fahad Bin Abdul Malik Tomawis said tasks related to peace and order and national security are beyond the mandate of OVP.

Tomawis said the OVP is tasked to perform “executive, ceremonial and advocacy functions, collaborating with stakeholders and organization in both public and private sectors to develop and promote programs that uplift the lives of the Filipino people.”

The vice president dispelled speculations that she would be running the campaign of a senatorial slate to rival that of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying she was preoccupied with defending the OVP at the moment.

While she remains focused on dealing with public scrutiny over her office’s spending and other controversies, Duterte has not crossed out the possibility of involving herself in the campaign for the 2025 polls.

“For now, I don’t have a Senate slate because as I said, I was focused on defending the OVP. But the campaign’s still a long way from now… in February,” she told reporters.

Earlier this year, Duterte announced that her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and her two brothers Sebastian and Paolo will run for the Senate. The Duterte patriarch, however, denied this. — Sheila Crisostomo, Emmanuel Tupas, Delon Porcalla, Helen Flores