MANILA: Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday (Oct 20) accused the Marcos administration of using allegations involving Chinese funding, a drug bust in Laos, and a purported travel authority to build a narrative aimed at bringing her down.
In a statement, she criticized the House of Representatives prosecution team for its alleged failure to establish a convincing case of an impeachable offense against her, saying “all it could offer were wacky poses that were neither entertaining nor amusing.”
"Now, we are witnessing an apparent shift in the government’s narrative in taking me down, attempting to reframe the matter as a national security issue.
"Every thread seems to be stretched into a conspiracy—from a business venture allegedly linked to Chinese funding to a drug bust in Laos supposedly connected to a Mindanao-Davao conspiracy," Duterte said.
"But what evidence does the government have to substantiate these sweeping accusations? None that has been convincingly presented," she added.
Duterte described the purported travel authority for Laos as an example of the government’s “desperation,” claiming that the document appeared to have been fabricated to support a narrative “unsupported by credible evidence.”
“Government should start working and stop politicking. The people are impoverished, hungry, and angry,” she added.
Duterte was referring to a circulating travel authority for her supposed visit to Laos from Sept 29 to 30.
The document, posted by former columnist Ramon Tulfo, indicated that the Office of the President had approved Duterte’s trip a day before her scheduled departure.
In his post, Tulfo linked Duterte’s supposed trip to the botched shipment of 521 kilogrammes of shabu from Laos to the Philippines on Oct 1.
However, the Office of the Executive Secretary said no such travel request had been made or approved.
Meanwhile, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV previously alleged that millions of pesos from Chinese sources had been funneled to entities linked to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
