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VP tirades vs. administration reflect self, family

VP tirades vs. administration reflect self, family

Filipino Times09-05-2025

Malacañang hit back at Vice President Sara Duterte, saying her tirades against the administration spoke of her own performance and the Duterte family's legacy.
Duterte's message at the PDP-Laban's final campaign rally for its senatorial candidates accused the president of dragging the country down.
'Hindi ako ang problema ng Pilipinas. Hindi Duterte ang problema ng Pilipinas,' Duterte said.
She went on to question who eventually benefits from the demolition job on the Duterte family: 'Sino nga ba ang tunay na makikinabang kung tuluyan nang burahin sa mundong ito ang pamilyang Duterte? Hindi ang mga Pilipino.'
In response, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said Duterte's statements seemed to mirror her and those of her family.
She cited Duterte's admission during her time as education secretary, where she said: 'I do not come from the education sector. I don't have an education background, so I cannot review what they are doing, and I rely on their expertise.'
The Palace said this contributed to the neglect of the education sector, citing 1.5 million laptops left idle in warehouses since 2020, the distribution of spoiled milk and moldy 'Nutribun' bread in public schools worth P5.7 billion, and the ghost students case where P65 million was recovered only after Duterte's exit from the agency..
'Hindi po ba siya ang problema ng bansa o isa sa mga problema ng bansa?' Castro asked.
The Palace further agreed with Duterte's own words that 'we are now paying the price for choosing the wrong leader,' which apply to her tenure in public service.

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