Sara hits back: Investigate all, not just my father

Vice President Sara Duterte fired back at her critics on Wednesday, saying investigations into corruption shouldn’t focus only on her father’s administration but should include past and current ones, including President Marcos’.

Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, accused the current administration of being “selective” with its accusations.

“They shouldn’t just look into my father’s administration,” she said in an interview in Zamboanga City. “If there were anomalies during President Aquino’s time, President Arroyo’s time, and even now under President Marcos, then include all of them. Don’t be selective.”

She noted that corruption didn’t begin only recently.

“Corruption has always been a problem in this country,” she said. “It didn’t just start yesterday. It’s only gotten worse over time, and now our country is suffering because of it.”

The Vice President also dared Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla to investigate everyone, including his own allies.

“He can dig into everything about me, but he shouldn’t be selective,” Duterte said. “He should also look into how quickly his son’s drug case was dismissed, and into other cases involving his allies.”

Duterte accused the Marcos administration of making corruption allegations to distract from its own failures.

“What BBM and his people are doing is classic political scapegoating,” she said. “They have no projects, no accomplishments, and corruption in their own government is rampant. So, they attack their political opponents to divert public attention from their own shortcomings.”

Asked if she would seek President Marcos’s help for her father’s temporary release, Duterte was firm: she won’t.

“I will not talk to BBM about my father’s situation,” she said. “What they did — kidnapping a Filipino within his own country — was a government kidnapping. There’s no going back from that.”

“Whatever legal troubles my father faces now, that’s his and our family’s problem. But for me to go to Marcos and ask for help? No. Not after what they did,” she stressed.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte remains detained in The Hague, Netherlands, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity over his administration’s bloody war on drugs.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently rejected his lawyers’ request for an interim release, saying his detention “remains necessary” under its statute.

When asked where her father would go if he was released, the Vice President declined to reveal details.

“I can’t say which country,” she said. “First, because the ICC hasn’t allowed him to leave. And even if I said which continent, people would just speculate.”

“The last time I spoke with our lawyer, that country was still cooperating with our appeal on the interim release denial,” she added.