Vice President Sara Duterte plans to reject the security detail that will be assigned to her by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) even as she said there are death threats against her, her family, and the staff at the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
Vice President Sara Duterte holds a press conference at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 (Santi San Juan/MANILA BULLETIN)
“I don’t trust anyone right now,” she said in a press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 26, at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City, where two of OVP executives are confined.
“So, yes, even if PSC (Presidential Security Command) acts on what I said. No, I will not accept it anymore. That’s what I did with PNP (Philippine National Police). Hindi na, hindi (No, not anymore),” the official stressed.
“Kasi hindi na natin nila alam yan eh, baka gagawin pa nila yan na rason na maglagay nang maglagay ng mga tao diyan na nagtatrabaho para sa kanila (Because we don’t know if maybe they will use that as a reason to appoint people here who work for them).”
Duterte said she will come up with a list of threats that she might release “next week.”
However, the Vice President stated that she doesn’t expect PSC to appoint extra security detail to her office and “at this point,” she would not accept any such arrangement because she couldn’t be sure if those who will be appointed are “non-partisan.”
The official questioned the silence of the PSC on the death threat she, her family, and OVP personnel personnel presumably received as she expressed concern that it neglected her security.
Duterte lamented the transfer of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) under the PSC and was thus influenced by the Office of the President (OP), when she resigned from President Marcos' Cabinet in July.
It can be recalled the Philippine National Police (PNP) withdrew 75 of its personnel from the Vice President’s security detail after she vacated her post as secretary at the Department of Education (DepEd).
But PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil defended this move and explained that 31 PNP members and 358 AFP personnel were still with the VPSPG in August.
Duterte has found herself in hot water over her remarks about hiring a contractor to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself gets killed.