Vice President Sara Duterte described recent remarks from the Marcos administration as “political scapegoating”, following its statement that her perceived lead in the 2028 presidential race is merely a diversionary tactic to destabilize the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that making the 2028 presidential election an issue is my diversionary tactic—hypothetically speaking. So now, let’s shift the conversation to the real reason they’re attacking me. What they are doing is political scapegoating. When nothing is happening in your administration and the principal—the president—is inactive, the response is to point fingers. When there are questions about the administration’s inaction, they resort to blaming others to divert attention and sow confusion among the people. This is classic political scapegoating,” she said.
The vice president cited the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which allegedly contained blank allocations, and a supposed personal scandal involving a member of the First Family in the United States.
“The public was already asking: why are there blanks in the national budget? We’re operating on an unconstitutional budget. Then what happened? There was an extraordinary rendition of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Add to that the personal scandal involving a First Family member in the U.S. Three days later, we witnessed a forced extraction—an extraordinary rendition—of former President Duterte right here in our country, and he was taken to The Netherlands,” she explained.
Duterte also pointed to the failed People’s Initiative (PI) effort at the House of Representatives (HoR), noting that soon after, an impeachment complaint was filed against her.
“That too is political scapegoating. When you have nothing to show—no projects, no programs, no sense of order—you start pointing fingers to make people forget the lack of leadership. So even if my supposed bid for the 2028 presidential race is untrue, you can see clearly from the timeline how they strategically attack political opponents to distract from their own misdeeds,” she added.
The vice president also responded to Malacañang’s criticisms regarding her travels, asserting that her recent trips were personal in nature.
“Those weren’t official trips… Do I really have to explain this? Fine. I’ll explain, because clearly my audience isn’t following. If you’re using government funds, that’s official business. If you’re not, then you file for leave—it’s personal. When government money is involved, it’s official, and you must report and submit documentation. But if it’s personal, and no public funds were used, there’s no need to report. It’s really that simple, and yet here I am, explaining it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Duterte addressed a recent noncommissioned survey by research firm Tangere, which showed her and Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go as the leading contenders for the 2028 presidential and vice presidential races.
“2028 is still too far off for these surveys to be our basis. The most meaningful surveys are those conducted when the official candidates are already known. That’s when the data reflects a fair spread across all contenders. For now, it’s too early. We don’t even know what tomorrow holds,” she said.
