Vice President Sara Duterte has traveled abroad 19 times from July last year to September, using her own resources, but the expenses incurred by her entourage — security personnel and staff — amount to P7.47 million. 

The VP made the confirmation during the deliberations of the House committee on appropriations on her office’s proposed P902.08 million budget for 2026 on Tuesday. She was the only representative of the OVP to attend the budget hearing, which lasted under an hour.

Duterte insisted that she personally shouldered all expenses related to her travels since last year, though the government resources spent on the travel costs of her security and staff totaled P7,473,887.70 as of 31 July. The amount incurred covers nine trips.

“No public funds were used for all my travels. I did not charge representation, I did not charge tickets, I did not charge per dime for all my travels in the Office of the Vice President,” Duterte told lawmakers.

“So if you can see, in the breakdown of the budget of travel for [the] Office of the Vice President [for 2026], you can see that there was a zero amount for the Vice President,” she added.

Duterte flew to Germany in July 2024, followed by a trip to Denmark in December of the same year. She also traveled to Japan in January and February of this year, and she visited Hong Kong and the Netherlands in March.

In May, she went to Qatar and returned to the Netherlands, where his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, is detained for alleged crimes against humanity linked to his notorious bloody war on drugs. 

She had three overseas trips in June — Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Australia — before she flew again to the Netherlands in July, followed by a trip to South Korea. 

From August to September, the BP also traveled to Kuwait, the Netherlands, France and Belgium. 

The expenses incurred by Duterte’s security (P474,646.93) and OVP personnel (P474,646.93) for the two trips to Southeast Asia totaled P938,379.99, while the government spent P645,371 on their trip in Australia. 

For three trips to the Middle East and Europe, the total travel cost ballooned to P4.75 million, with the security accounting for P2.92 million.

“For three trips in East Asia, the security budget was P1,141,937, and for the OVP personnel, zero because they did not join these trips, and the total is P1,141,937. Total for nine trips, for both the security and OVP personnel is P7,473,887.70,” she narrated. 

The VP, however, asserted that her foreign trips were all authorized by the Office of the Vice President. 

Duterte is scheduled to fly to Japan anew this month for a “rally” there. 

The MOOE, or maintenance and other operating expenses, accounted for the lion’s share of the proposed budget of the OVP for next year, with a P56 million allocation for travel expenses.