VP Sara belittles SONA, slams failed promises

MANILA, Philippines — Impeached Vice President Sara Duterte has belittled President Marcos and his State of the Nation Address (SONA), saying the Chief Executive failed to fulfill his promise of putting in jail by December 2025 those implicated in the flood control controversy.

In his SONA, Marcos said he is neither the president of his family nor his friends and charges are being prepared against his cousin, former speaker Martin Romualdez.

“Don’t expect the... former speaker or members of the House of Representatives to go to jail. Let’s just go back to P20 per kilo of rice,” Duterte said on Monday in The Hague, Netherlands.

According to Duterte, when she agreed to become Marcos’ running mate in the 2022 elections, the P20 per kilo of rice was one of two conditions she asked.

“Did he fulfill it or not? Someone will be imprisoned before Christmas. Was it fulfilled or not? Why do you still believe it and watch the SONA?” she added.

Another condition that the President did not fulfill was a request “for something I needed to do every night for my children because they were still young,” Duterte said.

The President’s “mahiya naman kayo (have some shame)” remark in last year’s SONA backfired since he signed the national budget despite numerous insertions, Duterte said.

Duterte, who is on trial for betrayal of public trust and misuse of funds, accused the administration of planning to stay in power beyond 2028.

“We do not know if we still have a country by 2028. And at the rate that this dictatorship is going, we do not even know if there will be elections in 2028,” she said.

Numerous state officials, public works engineers and contractors implicated in the flood control scandal are in jail.

Authorities are gathering evidence and preparing cases against more officials.

Meanwhile, Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Co yesterday described the Marcos administration as incompetent, lamenting that Filipinos still languish in poverty despite achievements laid out in Monday’s SONA. — Delon Porcalla, Marc Jayson Cayabyab