VP Sara: I won’t resign

MANILA, Philippines — With her impeachment trial in the Senate underway, Vice President Sara Duterte has addressed speculations that she might step down from office.

“Oh, never gonna happen. I will never resign because it would be like a betrayal to the 32.2 million people who voted for me,” she said in a short undated interview posted on the Padayon & Updates Facebook page yesterday.

“If PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) wants, he could try to do everything to remove me from office,” she added.

The four articles of impeachment against Duterte centered on alleged misuse of funds, unexplained wealth, bribery and grave threats. The Senate impeachment court recently subpoenaed her bank, tax and Anti-Money Laundering Council records.

Duterte was in London on Saturday to address a crowd of mostly overseas Filipino workers during the “Mahalin Natin ang Pilipinas: Pagtitipon para sa Kapayapaan at Kaunlaran” event. She was in The Hague last week.

While in London, Duterte lamented the proliferation of “crocodiles” in government.

“I do not know what happened from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s up to 2026. What happened is that Filipinos only looked out only for their own interest. Those who occupied seats (in government) and gained power, they became selfish… And what happens is if you do not join them, then according to them you are wrong and you will be imprisoned. That is what is happening in our country today,” she said.

Appealing to the OFWs, Duterte criticized why the government, of which she is a part, cannot provide for its people so that working abroad is no longer necessary.

“Why has it become normal for many Filipinos to dream of working abroad? This is wrong. Our own country should be able to provide them these opportunities. It should be that we do not have to leave the country, but we could leave only if we want to. We should not be forced to leave our families, our children and have broken families,” she said.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s younger brother Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte reiterated his view that the impeachment trial of the Vice President is meant to stop her from running for president in 2028.

In the recent Pulse Asia Survey, one in two Filipinos picked Duterte for president over her possible opponents.

However, 70 percent of Filipinos want her to answer the charges against her before the Senate impeachment court, a separate Social Weather Stations study revealed.

“The priority of the administration right now is the impeachment of the Vice President,” Mayor Duterte told Partido Demokratiko Pilipino members during the party’s national assembly on Saturday.

“We all know that if they cannot remove the Vice President now, they cannot install their own president in the 2028 elections because she is a great threat to the presidency in 2028,” he added.

The mayor also criticized the country’s presidential form of government, saying that political power has become overly centralized in the Office of the President.

He claimed that the President has the power to intimidate political opponents, citing the case of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, whom he alleged was jailed after he tried to open a Senate Blue Ribbon committee inquiry on the flood control anomaly.

“What happened to him? Do we even have freedom at all in our country?” Duterte asked. — Diana Lhyd Suelto