VP Sara belies Gracioso claims, to file affidavit on Thursday

Vice President Sara Duterte firmly denied the allegations of Rodulfo Gracioso Jr., former house speaker Lord Allan Velasco’s ex-security aide, saying records, photographs and other evidence contradict his claims of delivering millions of pesos in cash to her.

Duterte said she will formally submit her affidavit on Thursday detailing her response to Gracioso’s sworn statement and media interviews, which she said linked her to events she neither committed, knew about, nor personally experienced.

“I strongly deny the statements made by Rodulfo Mondigo Gracioso Jr. in his sworn affidavit and media interviews linking me to events that I did not do, had no knowledge of, or did not personally experience,” Duterte said.

She also said that she deliberately withheld some of her evidence and explanations to prevent Gracioso and those she described as his “scriptwriters” from adjusting their account based on the records in her possession.

Among the allegations the vice president disputed was Gracioso’s claim that he had served as part of her security detail and had repeatedly fetched and escorted her between 2018 and 2022.

“From the very beginning of my father’s term, it was made clear to our family that the mandate of the PSG had to be followed and that the PSG would be responsible for our security,” stated Duterte.

“Because of this, from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2022, only the PSG served as our security personnel,” she clarified.

Duterte also denied Gracioso’s claims that he picked her up from a hangar in Pasay City, transported her aboard a white Ford Savannah and brought her to hotels where alleged cash deliveries took place.

“I did not own a white Ford Savannah artist van,” she said.

The vice president likewise challenged Gracioso’s account of alleged cash deliveries to her Davao City residence, saying details in his affidavit did not match the actual layout of their home.

“It was merely a garage of my mother’s house [not a receiving lounge]. This only means that Gracioso had never been to our house because he did not know what our house looked like,” Duterte claimed.