COA Issues Report over Payroll of Security Personnel of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte amid Previous Claim
SARA DUTERTE – The Commission on Audit (COA) stated in its report that the Vice President still has 335 security personnel under the payroll of the government.
It is no secret to the Filipino people that Vice Pres. Duterte and Pres. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. are not in good terms. The Vice President has thrown tirades against the Marcos Jr. administration several times and Malacañang also frequently hit back at the second-highest official in the government.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte who recently claimed that she’s ready to assume the presidency if Pres. Bongbong Marcos resigns previously claimed that she does not trust the Philippine government, thus, she was considering to hire private security.
However, recently, the Commission on Audit stated in its 2024 report some information about the security personnel of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. Based on a report of Inquirer, COA stated in its report that the Vice President maintains a total of 335 guards that are under the government’s payroll.
In its 2024 report, COA also noted that some of the security personnel under the payroll of the government accompany the Vice President in her trips abroad. According to the Commission, the current count of Duterte’s guards is fewer compared to her 433 personnel who made up the VPSPG or the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group in 2022.
Based on the report, aside from the 335 security personnel of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte who are under the government’s payroll, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) also cited in its submission the spending of P5.020 million for the donation of motor vehicles to the VPSPG.
Amid the corruption accusations against Pres. Bongbong Marcos, the Vice President claimed that she understands that she is the next in the line of succession in case the Chief Executive steps down. According to her, it is no longer a question of what she will do if she will become the country’s President.
However, Malacañang slammed Vice Pres. Sara Duterte for expressing her readiness to replace Marcos Jr. as president. According to Palace press officer undersecretary Claire Castro, the statement of the Vice President is allegedly “unacceptable” and it supposedly weakens the confidence of the Filipino people on the administration.
The Vice President is now back in The Hague, Netherlands where her father, former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, is detained under the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The foreign court recently junked the interim release appeal of the former President and he is expected to spend the holidays under the detention of the ICC.