Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday made clear that her family has not used public money to visit their father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over his bloody anti-drug campaign.
In an interview, Sara said they use their personal funds and do not bother to compute the expenses, calling it their expression of full support for him.
“We don’t compute our expenses when it comes to supporting former president Duterte,” she said. “During our travels, we pay for ourselves to visit the former president.”
Sara said she had just returned from another private visit to The Hague, this time accompanied by her son.
“It was a very good day, a very productive visit,” she said. “We discussed so many things.”
She said the visit centered around family and light topics meant to lift the mood of the former president, who was visibly pleased to see his grandson.
“Because I was with my son we talked about sports, education, scholarships, who should benefit from scholarships, and we even talked about girlfriends.
“All our discussions revolved around the life of a young boy,” she said. “He was visibly pleased when he saw his grandchild.”
Still, the shadow of the ICC proceedings lingered, with Duterte bringing up the core issue at the heart of the case — his war on drugs.
“He mentioned drugs, and the current state of our country in terms of illegal drugs,” Sara said.
She quoted her father’s message to his grandson: “Not everyone in jail is bad. I am not a kidnapper, I am not a robber… I am here because I did things for my country. And I do not regret going after criminals and people dealing in illegal drugs.”
Her remarks came amid heightened scrutiny of government use of confidential and intelligence funds — including allegations by lawmakers that the Office of the Vice President disbursed funds under fictitious names.
Sara dismissed the accusations as baseless and said the claims would be best addressed in court.
“I think it is wrong for everyone to pick up as truth or as fact all the pronouncements of the members of the House of Representatives, particularly with fictitious names,” she said. “There are rules in intelligence operations. Aliases are often used.”