Despite her braggadocious appearance and high approval and trust rating in surveys, Vice President Sara Duterte seems so insecure and yearning for attention.
Given her stature as the country’s second-highest official, the vice president has been stooping so low to express her displeasure over something or someone.
Her non-attendance at the third State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and her four-page “open letter” to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Rommel Marbil over his alleged lies about the withdrawal of 75 police officers from her security team were just the latest incidents where she displayed a strange outburst of temper.
The vice president considered the recall of the 75 policemen as “political harassment” but skipped the fact that she has a 433-man security detail, for which the government spends at least P500 million a year, according to Larry Gadon, the presidential adviser on poverty alleviation.
In a statement on Sunday, Gadon said the “lavish” expenditure for the vice president’s security unit could have been put to better use, such as feeding the hungry and alleviating the poor.
Earlier, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group has a P75 million allocation in the 2024 budget. For 2025, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the Office of the Vice President is asking for P2.037 billion, which is 8% higher than this year’s P1.874-billion allocation.
For what would a “spare tire” use the requested P2.037 billion next year? She has not even explained in detail how she spent the P125 million funds in the last 11 days of 2022.
While on a vacation in Germany last week, she found time writing a long open letter on July 29 to the PNP chief, whom she addressed merely as Rommel, and castigating him for his alleged “lies” about the recall and assignment of police officers for her security detail, which can be considered as “childish tantrums” and “theatrics,” as San Jose del Monte Rep. Florida Robes described it.
The tone of the letter was full of spite but characteristic of a Duterte. It was an unnecessary display of arrogance of power.
Ordinarily, high officials skipping the SONA would just send letters of regret and keep quiet about it. The VP did not. “No, I will not attend the SONA,” she told reporters on July 12 at the inauguration of the Child and Adolescent Neurodevelopment Center in a hospital in Davao City. “I am appointing myself as the designated survivor,” she added, eliciting various reactions. She refused to say what she meant by it.
A few hours before the president’s annual address to the joint session of Congress on July 22, the vice president’s office issued a media statement: “The vice president will not watch the SONA on TV or gadgets.”
She was supposed to be in Bohol to “empathize with the Boholanos for the death of their vice governor, as well as to uplift the general mood of the people brought about by the suspension of their duly elected local officials.”
Bohol Vice Gov. Dionisio Victor Balite passed away on July 17. She could have visited the wake earlier than July 22, the day of the SONA.
Her attendance at the SONA was not necessary. But the vice president’s statements regarding her non-appearance were unnecessary. Perhaps she needed those to draw attention to herself. She probably wanted to make it known that she would not want to be seated again beside first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, who said in an April interview, “Bad shot na sa akin ‘yan.”
After the SONA brouhaha, a stolen shot of her departure for an unannounced trip to Munich, Germany on July 24 triggered yet another outburst from the vice president. While in Germany, she took to Facebook to decry the recall of 75 policemen from her security detail.
That was apparently intended to fend off adverse comments about her departure in the early hours before most of Metro Manila and nearby provinces were submerged in flash floods.
The vice president was accompanied to Germany by her husband Manases Carpio, their children, and her mother Elizabeth Abellana-Zimmerman. Her trip coincided with the two-day concert of American songwriter Taylor Swift there.
Whether she attended the concert or not is none of our business. She was just unlucky that her departure was set on the day when a calamity devastated most of Luzon, and that she was caught on camera at the airport.
For someone who wants to become president but goes away when a devastating calamity strikes gives the enemy a bullet to hit her when campaign season begins. Someone who insults the PNP chief and complains about the pullout of 75 policemen but skips the fact that she has more than 300 security aides and escorts left does not make a good candidate.
Why does she feel so insecure? Who is she afraid of? Why would she need more than 400 security people to protect herself and her family?
With her recent actions, can she keep her high ratings in the surveys ahead of the elections? Or would voters easily forget these displays of arrogance and sense of entitlement and still choose her in 2028 to lead the country?
Spare us, oh Lord!
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
