AFP: No more exclusive security force for Sara
Vice President Sara Duterte has lost a security force exclusively for her after the military “deactivated” the nearly three-year-old Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) and created a new unit that just includes her among those that it would protect, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Saturday.
The AFP made the disclosure of its Feb. 6 decision, which was the day after she was impeached by the House of Representatives, to correct a news report that the VPSPG was “disbanded” by chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.
In a statement, the AFP said the VPSPG “was not disbanded, but rather reorganized” into the AFP Security and Protection Group (AFPSPG) “to unify security and protection operations” whose services would not be exclusively for the Vice President but also for other VIPs approved by the military leadership.
“This administrative adjustment was undertaken to unify security and protection operations,” the AFP said.
“It ensures the continued, uninterrupted, and robust protection of the Vice President within a more integrated and optimized framework,” it added.
According to the AFP, the VPSPG was created in June 2022. Prior to this, vice presidents were secured by the Security and Protection Battalion under the AFP General Headquarters and Headquarters Support Command, “with no dedicated military security group.”
“As such, the current setup is a more efficient and effective way to ensure the safety and security of the present and future vice presidents,” the AFP said.
A Commission on Audit report on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) showed that the VPSPG had 433 members then.
Beware of disinfo
Reacting to the disbandment report, the AFP urged Filipinos to avoid spreading false or misleading information.
“We enjoin our ‘kababayans’ to use our communications platforms to promote unity, peace, and understanding, and not to sow discord, hatred, and division,” it said.
The military, it said, would remain “fully committed to the safety and protection of the Vice President and all key officials of the government.”
Duterte requested the creation of her own security force even before she took office on June 30.
In a June 25, 2022 statement, she said the activation of the VPSPG was “commendable as it will resolve the matter of continuity in security for all vice presidents of the Philippines.”
She thanked the Department of National Defense and the AFP for heeding her request for a security unit “independent” of the Presidential Security Group, now the Presidential Security Command.
“That foresight was demonstrated in this activation was likewise highly laudable—that it may be expected to solve the challenges if, in future elections, the vice president and the president face the misfortune of having strained relations,” she said.
Falling out
President Marcos and Duterte have since had a falling out, leading to her breakaway from the administration in July last year when she resigned from the Cabinet and intensified her criticisms of his leadership.
She later publicly disclosed that she had spoken with someone to make sure to kill the President, first lady Liza Araneta Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez if she gets killed in an alleged assassination plot against her.
In November last year, Brawner temporarily replaced the military personnel assigned to the VPSPG after the Philippine National Police issued a subpoena to some of its members who were part of the alleged “forced transfer” of Zuleika Lopez, Duterte’s chief of staff, from Veterans Memorial Medical Center to St. Luke’s Medical Center.
He assured the Vice President then that she would not be left without protection, saying that her security “is still of primary concern to us.”
“Because if something happens to the Vice President, this could be the beginning of chaos because of her statement that if something happens to her, she will do some actions to take against the President, first lady, and House Speaker,” Brawner said.
In the same month, two ranking officers of the VPSPG, Col. Raymund Dante Lachica and Col. Dennis Nolasco, were identified during a House hearing as responsible for disbursing millions of pesos in cash from Duterte’s confidential funds under the OVP and the Department of Education, which she had resigned from.
‘Excited to go home’
On Friday, Duterte said she was looking forward to returning to the Philippines from the Netherlands after she had formed the defense team for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is being held in a detention center of the International Criminal Court awaiting possible trial for murder as a crime against humanity.
“My task is done,” she said. “I’m excited to go home,” she told reporters outside the detention center in The Hague.
She refused to name the new lawyers for her father. The ICC has not yet announced any new defense lawyer who would represent Duterte in the proceedings apart from his chief counsel British-Israeli Nicholas Kaufman.
Her brothers, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte are expected to soon replace her in taking care of their 80-year-old father’s personal needs.
Duterte indicated that she might help the election campaign of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, despite not being part of the political party, which is chaired by her father. The party president, Sen. Robinhood Padilla, had traveled to The Hague to show support for her father.
“Maybe on my travel back home, I will have time to reflect on what to do next and how to help the country through the campaign and the elections,” Duterte said.
On Imee’s probe
She said she may also participate in a future Senate hearing to be called by Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the foreign relations committee. The panel is looking into the alleged illegal arrest of the former president and his handover to the ICC last month.
Duterte said that she is “still friends” with the President’s sister despite the political fallout between their families.
“I would like to believe that the friendship is already beyond politics. Despite what happened, we still have [an] open line of communication,” she told reporters. “But it just boils down to two things: it’s either we’re being fake to each other or it’s really beyond (politics).” —WITH A REPORT FROM KATHLEEN DE VILLA
