The lies have begun and we need to cut through those lies, embroidered no less by two sitting senators of the land who have nothing better to do. Sara Duterte, the lie goes, has just been deprived of her security protection group. Meaning, she is now unprotected.
Easy does it, dear readers. The truth is in the numbers.
It was the Commission on Audit that first revealed those numbers. In its 2022 assessment of the Office of the Vice President, COA said Sara’s newly created Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) had security escorts numbering 433.
Recall that Sara herself requested the Armed Forces of the Philippines to complement her with a new VPSPG independent of the Presidential Security Command (PSC) that traditionally protected the vice president. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., fresh from his victory from his so-called Unity Team with the Dutertes, granted her wish. She made the request even before she was sworn into office. The predilection for perversion was already there.
COA then said, matter-of-factly: the 433 translated to 63% of the total staff of the OVP. COA also commented, matter-of-factly, that the 433 security escorts represented a 455% increase from the 78 security escorts that the previous vice president Leni Robredo had.
The number 433 meant that 6 out of 10 employees of the OVP were security escorts. That is a real shocker. How many policemen are assigned to protect our cities? Not even 433. Florida Robes, the representative of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, gave the most graphic comparison: “Some VPs had a protective detail that can fit in a van. Hers would need three Airbus planes filled to the rafters.”
Did Sara deny that 433 security escorts were protecting her? She did not. In fact, she admitted by saying “the COA found no adverse finding on the creation of the VPSPG.” She also justified the numbers by saying she had two other titles, that of secretary of education and vice-chairman of the NTF ELCAC (too long to spell out).
But there was another side to the 433. The Department of Budget and Management said the cost of the 433 amounted to P25.308 million for personnel services of military and uniformed personnel in 2023, up 86.80% from P13.548 million in 2022. Why was that? That was because Sara asked for an increase from the 433 to 558 security escorts in 2023. Caprice isn’t even the right word to describe her strongman desires. What kind of work does she really do, if at all?
This July 23, Philippine National Police chief Rommel Marbil recalled 75 police personnel detailed to the VPSPG. While in Munich, Germany for what some said was for the Taylor Swift ERAS concert (July 27/28), Sara threw a tantrum. Not just a tantrum. She lost her composure that goes from the dignity of her office. She swiftly turned ballistic.
Is the tantrum justified? Let us do the math, in fact a simple subtraction that even elementary school children can do.
If she had 433 security escorts to begin her vice presidency with and Marbil took out 75, that would mean she still has a VPSPG of 358 security escorts. The 358 were still more than 4x more than Robredo’s 78 security escorts. Sara was still amply and abundantly protected.
And then out of pique, she told Marbil, through a very non-statesmanlike Facebook letter of four angry pages, that she was returning to the PNP the 45 police escorts he had provided the OVP with. 358 – 45 = 313 security escorts. That is still 401% more than Robredo’s minuscule 78 (for which Robredo never, not even a whimper, complained about or threw tantrums for).
Are the 313 a shortage? Dear reader, you can easily answer that. Sara is the most secured vice president in the entire history of the Republic of the Philippines.
What would possibly comprise the 313? Presidential security escorts do not exclusively consist of police personnel. There are personnel as well from the military and the Marines. She continues to have that. The once independent VPSPG has been reworked under the president’s PSC. Meaning, it has been as good as abolished (correct decision).
Here’s another reason for her tantrum. Of the 75 relieved by Marbil, 38 came from her close-in security escorts when she was Davao city mayor. She wants police escorts who are only known to her.
The Dutertes want only trusted cops for their security apparatus, but that depends on what that “trust” entails. Former assassins of the Davao Death Squad have already confessed to the International Criminal Court that the Dutertes have used Davao city police personnel for paid extrajudicial killing and illegal drugs work.
Which raises the question – what is it about political dynasties that they imagine threats against them even when there are none? Is it because they are very much conscious of the evil that they do?
And then she closes her letter to Marbil: “Remember, when it comes to my family’s security, I get to say who is worthy, not you. You are just the law, not God.”
That means she IS the god. Last time we knew, government is of laws and not of men, certainly not of men who play god.
Marbil wins.
