Vice President Sara Duterte claims to have proof that President Marcos wants to stay in power beyond 2028 when his term ends.
‘It’s not an allegation. There is evidence to that,’ Duterte said in a chance interview in Zamboanga City yesterday.
Duterte recalled that during her conversation with Marcos and his sister Sen. Imee Marcos in 2023, the President admitted that he knew about the movement on Charter change.
‘It was in 2023, before he left for the United States, when I was still in the Department of Education. When the impeachment first came out, in October 2023… I confronted him, and that discussion reached the Charter change,’ Duterte said.
She noted that there was even an argument between the siblings.
‘I don’t know why it reached there, I don’t remember. The three of us talked and they already argued on the Charter change. I asked him, ‘why are you letting the House of Representatives push for the impeachment when I’m not doing anything?’ ‘ Duterte recalled.
The Vice President accused Marcos of following the steps of his late father, former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
‘Did you see his father? How many years was that? 20 years..Look at his DNA, that he does not want to leave his post,’ Duterte added.
She said the allies of Marcos first pushed for the people’s initiative of amending the 1987 Constitution.
‘First of all, their failed people’s initiative in amending the Constitution. Secondly, this Congress, when they assumed their post, they immediately said that their priority is the Charter change. It’s in the paper,’ Duterte stressed.
Duterte said the allies of Marcos are using the need to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution in pushing for Charter change.
‘Their cover story is economic provisions, right?… But the truth is, it’s term extension,’ she added.
‘No going back’
Asked about the status of her father, detained former president Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President said she has no plans to seek help from President Marcos to secure the ex-leader’s release.
‘I will not talk to BBM for the former president Duterte because to me, what they did was kidnapping a Filipino inside our country. There’s no going back to that. It’s his job in a sense that he approved it, that he shouldn’t have done it as a President. Whatever the legal problem of the former president Duterte now, it’s a problem for him and, of course, for our family because he’s our father,’ Duterte said.
She distanced herself from the previous pronouncement of Nicholas Kaufman, her father’s lead counsel, who wanted to meet with Marcos to negotiate the release of his client.
‘For me, to go to him (Marcos) and request him on behalf of former president Duterte, no. Because there’s no going back on what they did, of rendition,’ Duterte added.
She refused to disclose the country that agreed to accept the former president in case interim release is approved.
‘I can’t say what country it is because first of all, it’s not allowed by the ICC (International Criminal Court), and if I say what continent it is, people might speculate,’ she said.
She also noted that their family is already prepared for a worst-case scenario that their father will have to spend Christmas behind bars.
‘House has no moral ascendancy’
Reacting to lawmakers’ warning to cut the Office of the Vice President’s budget for 2026 because of her absence during budget hearings, she said the House should stop acting like a parent trying to discipline her.
‘In reality, we call these lawmakers crocodiles, right? That’s the general perception for all members of the House of Representatives. They have no moral ascendancy over the Office of the Vice President,’ she said.
‘Our expectation is a reduced budget of the Office of the Vice President because I said at the time, it’s the same administration, it’s the same speaker of the House of Representatives and it’s the same set of characters. So at that point, I was right in what I said last August,’ Duterte added.