Sara blames Marcos for PH debt, lost jobs
Vice President Sara Duterte blamed President Marcos and his administration for the spikes in the government’s debt and the number of jobless Filipinos.
“As expected, because the entire administration is not working, especially the President,” Duterte said in a mix of Filipino and English at the The Hague in the Netherlands on May 7.
“What you should be doing is focusing on your work. When you don’t focus on your work, that’s what happens, unemployment increases, we borrow more and more,” the Vice President said.
But the remarks appeared to be a misunderstanding of the causative explanations of the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
On Wednesday, the BTr reported that government debt swelled to P18.49 trillion in March, nearly 2 percent higher than the P18.16 trillion debt recorded in February, but the agency explained that this was mainly due to the sharp depreciation of the peso against the US dollar.
The movement of exchange rates also affected the new global bonds the government issued in 2025 and the official development assistance the Philippines availed from international partners.
The PSA, meanwhile, recorded a flat 5 percent unemployment rate in March, slightly lower than the 5.1 percent recorded in February because of the seasonal changes in employment and the decreased hiring after the holiday period.
Misleading ‘facts’
Seasonal job losses in sectors like wholesale and retail trade amounted to the loss of almost 900,000 jobs while the service and sales sectors lost 772,000 jobs. In agriculture and forestry, crop cycles reduced rural employment by about 1.42 million jobs, PSA data showed.
Responding to Duterte’s remarks, Palace press officer Claire Castro said the vice president may not be updated on facts and may not have seen the president’s work in social media because “she admitted that she didn’t know how to use a computer.”
“She said the President is not working. That’s sad,” Castro said. “[The vice president] admitted that she doesn’t know how to use a computer. She only uses the most expensive laptop. She only uses it for her Zoom. Again, she doesn’t know what’s going on, what the President is working on.”
The Palace press officer, who was in Cebu for the leaders’ summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also argued that the Philippine government’s debt ballooned during the administration of the vice president’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and not during the Marcos administration.
Barking up wrong tree
The government started borrowing heavily (P9.795 trillion) in 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, that increased to P11.7285 trillion and left a debt stock of P13.4189 trillion in 2022 when Marcos assumed office.
“Let’s remember, the debt increased not just recently—the debt increased because President Marcos inherited the huge debt that former President Duterte acquired and it was allegedly neglected due to the abuse of Pharmally and the ghost projects of Build, Build, Build,” Castro added.
“Meanwhile, the vice president is abroad and on vacation. So, she is not helping Asean, and she is not getting any work done,” Castro added.
The vice president is supposedly visiting her father at The Hague where he is detained by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. She is expected to return to the country on May 15 after visiting the Netherlands, South Korea, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Her trips also coincide with her foreseen impeachment by the House of Representatives.
