Palace: Sara's admission proves Marcos harbors no grudge

Malacañang on Friday said Vice President Sara Duterte's admission that she has no personal rift with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. validates the President's position that he has never harbored ill feelings toward her.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Duterte's statement shows that Marcos has never treated the vice president unfairly, despite her repeated criticism of the administration.

"This proves, coming from the vice president herself, that the President never treated her badly as a person or as vice president," Castro said in Filipino in a video message.

"In fact, even when she was not working and was frequently abroad, we never heard President Marcos attack her. Yet she took her anger personally and even said she had spoken to someone willing to carry out her order to kill the President, the First Lady and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez," she added.

Duterte, in a video message from The Hague on Thursday, denied having a personal conflict with Marcos.

"Wala kaming away ni BBM. Wala akong problema sa kaniya bilang tao. May problema ako sa kaniya bilang Presidente because he's a weak leader and the country is in chaos," she said.

Castro rejected the vice president's claim, saying it was Duterte's camp that had been sowing political instability.

"Who is creating the chaos? Who has been planning destabilization? Isn't it their group because they want to take the position from President Marcos?" Castro said.

She also accused Duterte of misleading the public by repeatedly claiming that the President had accomplished nothing during his term.

Castro cited housing projects and flood mitigation efforts, including those in Davao City, as examples of the administration's accomplishments.

"The government is addressing the long-standing flooding problem in Davao City upon the instruction of President Marcos Jr. We hope she opens her eyes and stops pretending not to see what the administration has done," she said.