Palace press officer Claire Castro denied on Tuesday that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and his family are seeking ‘perpetuation in power’ as claimed by Vice President Duterte in a press briefing in Zamboanga City.
‘I’ve been saying that for a long time, haven’t I? This government is doing nothing but politicizing and spending the Philippine budget on corruption.They no longer have an objective for their tenure in the administration other than to engage in politics and their end goal is perpetuation in power,’ Duterte said partly in Filipino.
Castro dismissed the vice president’s comments, saying Duterte has no proof of her accusations, and claiming that the current government is cleaning up after the previous Duterte administration.
‘All words. all accusations, no evidence, no value. Even when the truth is President Marcos, Jr. is fighting corruption which the previous administration failed to do,’ Castro said.
‘What’s worse is that they even defended those who ‘allegedly did not abuse the public treasury’ like in the Pharmally scandal. They are now cleaning up what they spread in the past. They shouldn’t divert the sins they committed against the people,’ added Castro.
Duterte also accused the administration, and the Office of the Ombudsman of ‘controlling the narrative,’ saying that when the corruption probe comes too close to the Office of the President, the investigation dies down.
‘Why is the investigation specific? Why aren’t all corruption scandals investigated? That’s why we say everyone is controlling the narrative because they choose what they want to investigate, if someone in the Office of the President gets hit, the investigation suddenly dies or disappears or gets buried or drowned,’ the vice president pointed out.
It must be noted that newly-appointed Ombudsman, former justice secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla previously said that the complaints made against Duterte over her office’s and the Department of Education’s alleged misuse of confidential funds will be reviewed. /gsg