"When he said, mahiya naman kayo (you should be ashamed), that was just a PR stunt."

This was the statement of Vice President Sara Duterte when she was asked in The Hague, Netherlands, about President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s failure to discuss the alleged flood control scam during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday.

"Including that line in his speech was just a PR stunt, but it backfired. The truth is, the flood control projects are ghost projects, or if not, they are unfinished or substandard projects," she said.

The vice president added that the remark was merely intended to distance Marcos from the controversy, even though she claimed he personally approved the budget for the allegedly anomalous projects.

"Unfortunately, he cannot distance himself from the corruption surrounding the flood control scandal because he was the one who signed the budget," she reiterated.

Duterte also asserted that Marcos was aware that some projects proposed under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) did not appear in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and should have flagged the discrepancies before signing the budget.

She further argued that although the president vowed to hold everyone involved accountable, no one has been jailed. Because of this, she said Marcos' claim that he was the only president to make those responsible jailed for the alleged anomalies was "a total lie."

"No one who received suitcases of money from the flood control scam has been jailed," she argued.

Duterte also said the public should not expect "the big fishes" to be held accountable, particularly the president's cousin and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

"Didn't he say the same thing last year? That before December, someone would be jailed? Was anyone jailed? No. Before Christmas? Still no one. So don't expect him to jail the former Speaker or members of the House of Representatives," she emphasized.

The vice president also commented on the ₱20-per-kilo rice program, saying it was never fully realized. She added that the president's repeated unfulfilled promises should no longer inspire the public's trust or raise their expectations.