Vice President Sara Duterte said she would never team up again with the Marcoses in the succeeding elections following their strained relationship just less than two years after their landslide victory in the 2022 polls.
"Never again," she said in an ambush interview on Wednesday at the House of Representatives after facing a congressional probe into the alleged misuse of her office's funds.
The VP laughingly told reporters that elaborating the grounds for their falling out would require a "sit down" interview.
Duterte explained that she was never friends with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the first place and that their relationship was merely anchored by the fact that they were a solid tandem under the UniTeam ticket.
"We are not friends. We only met because we were running mates. So, even before we became running mates, we never had a dialogue. We only talked during the campaign and then at work," the Vice President said in Filipino.
"Senator Imee Marcos is really my friend. She has known me since 2012," she added.
In June, Duterte made headlines for abruptly departing the Marcos Cabinet as Secretary of Education and co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, igniting speculation that the so-called UniTeam was already on the rocks.
Duterte refused to answer whether she regretted joining the UniTeam because she might have sounded "sarcastic."
Earlier, Duterte disclosed that the UniTeam was only formed to win the 2022 elections. Following her resignation, she openly criticized how the country is being led under the current administration.
While not explicitly alluding to the President, she stressed that his allies in the House of Representatives are already "practicing" to impeach her in the guise of the said congressional inquiry.
She alleged that the probe aimed to "discredit" her to prevent future political contests.
Duterte revealed that lawmakers from Mindanao had been feeding her information about the House's supposed plot to overthrow her and Speaker Martin Romualdez's plans to run as the administration's candidate in the 2028 elections.
Duterte and Romualdez are perceived as front-runners in the next national polls. The VP committed to announcing her aspirations in the fourth quarter of 2026, while the House chief denied that he would be gunning for the highest post.
Duterte and Romualdez, the President's cousin, have been at odds since mid-2023 after the Romualdez-led House realigned her multi-million fund request for confidential funds to security and intel agencies.
In a speech earlier this week, Romualdez warned that the House will not tolerate "hypocrisy" of coward officials crying for accountability but are blind to their "misuse of public funds."
Duterte said she was certain that the Speaker's remark was directed at her.