A House leader speculated on Wednesday that Vice President Sara Duterte may be preparing to run for a Senate or mayoral seat in the 2025 mid-term elections, citing her apparent lack of interest in fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of her office.

“She doesn’t seem interested. So I’m assuming she might run for another position. I don’t know if she’s running for the Senate or a mayorship,” said Assistant Majority Leader Paolo Ortega in an ambush interview.

“If you see that disinterest, the way that she’s been handling the invitation to her by the House of Representatives about the budget — there must be urgency,” he said, speculating that Duterte may have “other plans” to prioritize.

The House of Representatives, which is expected to pass House Bill 10800 or the General Appropriations Bill containing the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget on Wednesday, is still waiting for the Office of the Vice President to defend its budget at the plenary.

Duterte skipped — not once but twice — the deliberations on her office’s proposed P733.198-million allocation following a verbal sparring with the members of the House who repeatedly pressed her on how she utilized P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days in December 2022. Of the amount, P73.287 million was disallowed by the Commission on Audit.

In late June, the VP disclosed that her brothers, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, will seek Senate seats in the 2025 polls along with their father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.