Vice President Sara Duterte (left), San Jose Del Monte City Rep. Florida "Rida" Robes (Facebook)

A ranking congresswoman has brushed off as mere "childish tantrums" Vice President Sara Duterte's complaints over the Philippine National Police's (PNP) recall of her 75-member security detail. 

According to San Jose Del Monte City lone district Rep. Florida "Rida" Robes, Vice President Duterte will hardly feel this reduction in the number of her bodyguards. 

“The truth is her security contingent dwarfs the number of policemen assigned to cities. The COA (Commission on Audit) says so in its latter report,” the lady lawmaker said in a statement Monday, July 29. 

In the COA’s 2022 annual audit report on the Office of the Vice President (OVP), about 433 security personnel were deployed only for Duterte--an increase of 455 percent from her predecessor’s security detail. 

“Truth is often surrounded by a bodyguard of lies, says a famous saying. In the case of the VP's childish tantrums against the move to reduce, by little, her garrison of guards, she has muddled the issue, supplanting facts with theatrics,” Robes, chairperson of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said. 

“What is also undeniable is that she has number of bodyguards more than all previous VPs of the land combined. Some VPs had a protective detail that can fit in van. Hers would need three Airbus planes filled to the rafters,” noted the Bulacan solon.


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Vice President Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, exited the Cabinet of President Marcos some two weeks out of her own free will. She had served as Department of Education (DepEd) secretary for the past two years. 

Some of her supporters have dubbed her the new opposition leader. 

Robes questioned why the Vice President continues to insist on having a “layer and layer of security blanket, to move around surrounded by a phalanx of guards". 

“Volume is what distinguishes a protective detail from a private army, and her insistence to have a battalion of guards betrays her real motive,” she said.