OVP partly reveals Sara’s whereabouts
Vice President Sara Duterte’s overseas trips were “official engagements” that comply with existing government regulations and no public funds were used for all her travels overseas, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) said in a statement on Saturday.
“These official engagements are conducted in full compliance with existing government rules and regulations, ensuring that her presence abroad is both lawful and aligned with her responsibilities in public service,” the OVP statement read.
“In addition, no public funds are used for all her travels overseas,” the VP said, adding that Duterte was in Kuwait at press time for a gathering with Filipinos to discuss their concerns.
“She will then proceed to continue working on the release of our former head of state Rodrigo Duterte who was forcibly taken from Philippine soil,” the OVP statement said.
“The Office of the Vice President, along with its 10 satellite offices across the country, remains ready to serve and assist our fellow Filipinos both here and abroad, despite limitations in capacity and budget,” it also said.
The Vice President was last seen in public during the OVP disaster relief operations in Marinduque from July 29 to July 31. She had just returned from a trip to South Korea on July 28.
The OVP issued the statement amid repeated questions from the public about her whereabouts and her projects, for which she was allocated P733 million this year after the OVP failed to submit documents to cover the P2 billion budget the Vice President sought for her office.
For 2026, OVP spokesperson Ruth Castelo said they retained the proposed budget of the OVP for the 2025 fiscal year.
Duterte’s office initially proposed to retain its 2025 budget of P733 million, but the Department of Budget and Management increased it to P803.6 million and later increased it further to P903 million upon the Vice President’s request.
Asked by media
Malacañang has so far made no comment on the Vice President’s foreign travels until journalists asked Undersecretary Claire Castro of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) about her whereabouts during President Marcos’ state visit to India.
“The Vice President is said to have plans to go to Kuwait on August 8, but as we speak, no request for travel authority has been submitted yet by the vice president,” Castro said at a briefing in New Delhi on Aug. 6.
On that day, even OVP employees said they were unaware of Duterte’s whereabouts at that time. Journalists poked fun at OVP spokesperson Castelo for misstating that the Vice President’s presence in the office was “sometimes virtual, sometimes ghost.”
The PCO has not clarified since Aug. 6 whether the Vice President had sought a travel authorization for her current trip.
Official foreign travels by government officials and employees are governed by an 85-year-old executive order, Executive Order No. 259, that has not been revised since it was signed into law by then President Manuel Quezon in March 1940.
The pertinent provisions of the three-paragraph EO 259: “Hereafter, unless otherwise provided by law, travel to foreign countries and the United States on official business or on special assignments in connection with investigations or study which may be of advantage to the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, to its agencies and instrumentalities, or to any of the government-owned or controlled institutions, may be performed only upon prior authority of the President of the Philippines. All executive orders or regulations inconsistent with the foregoing are hereby revoked.”
