Palace: Duterte camp sabotaging economy

SINGAPORE — The Marcos administration on Wednesday accused Vice President Sara Duterte’s camp of deliberately fueling the political noise that is dragging down the Philippine economy, saying its attacks were aimed at weakening President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and destabilizing the government.

Palace spokesperson Claire Castro said Duterte’s camp was using attacks against the administration to create uncertainty and weaken the economy.

“This political noise is affecting the economy and that is their intention — to lie, spread fake news, destroy the administration, and remove the President from office. They are one of the reasons our economy is not doing well,” Castro said in Filipino.

Castro particularly slammed Duterte’s spokesperson, lawyer Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr., who accused the administration of political persecution in pursuing the Vice President’s conviction in her impeachment trial.

“The accountability being demanded of the Vice President through an impeachment trial is in accordance with the Constitution. If he calls this political persecution, perhaps the meaning of impeachment in our Constitution should also be changed,” Castro said.

She said Filipinos could see for themselves the evidence presented before the Senate impeachment court.

“This is not political persecution. They are merely using that as their excuse to show that they are supposedly clean and free of any wrongdoing,” she said.

Duterte earlier criticized the Marcos administration’s handling of the economy, describing the country’s situation as a “triple whammy” of rising fuel prices, a weakening peso and high inflation.