The crumbling ties between the top two leaders of the country saw a major erosion during the final days of July as Vice-president Sara Duterte-Carpio came out swinging at the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. following the reduction of her security personnel.
“Let us call it what it is — a clear case of political harassment,” wrote Duterte-Carpio in a July 29 open letter to describe the pullout of 75 out of 120 police personnel assigned to her security contingent.
The lengthy letter, written mostly in Tagalog, was addressed to Marcos’ police chief, Gen. Rommel Marbil. It was posted on the Vice-president’s social media platforms that quickly spread like wildfire nationwide, igniting partisan reactions.
“Ang relief ng mga PNP personnel ay dumating pagkatapos ko mag-resign sa DepEd, pagkatapos ko inihambing ang SONA sa isang catastrophic event, at pagkatapos lumabas ang cocaine video. Let us spare our people from all the lies,” she wrote.
The so-called cocaine video, branded by the Marcos government as a deepfake, strongly hinted that the person who was seen taking illegal drugs was no less than the President.
In the same open letter by the Vice-president, she claimed that unidentified police personnel were conducting surveillance near her residence. Duterte-Carpio also alleged irregularity in the leak of an airport security video showing her and family members leaving for a trip abroad July 24.
There was no immediate comment from the President and his national police chief with regards to the Vice-president’s open letter that suggested a top-level political discord in the country just a couple of years since Marcos and Duterte-Carpio campaigned for political unity en route to their resounding election victories.
Meanwhile, pro-administration lawmakers took the cudgels for the President, insisting that the Vice-president’s security was not at all compromised despite its reduced size.
San Juan del Monte Rep. Rida Robes said Duterte-Carpio’s letter merely attempted to mask her oversized security detail. Calling the Vice-president’s tirades “childish tantrums,” the lawmaker noted that the original number of bodyguards assigned to Duterte-Carpio was 433 police and military personnel.
“The truth is her security contingent dwarfs the number of policemen assigned to cities,” Rep. Robes said. “Some VPs had a protective detail that can fit in (a) van. Hers would need three Airbus planes filled to the rafters.”
Manila District 3 Rep. Joel Chua said Duterte-Carpio should not rant as she was “the most secured (vice president) in history.” He also accused the Vice-president of diverting public attention away from her family trip to Germany while thousands of Filipinos reeled from the devastation wrought by Typhoon Carina.
On the other side of the fence, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa called on volunteers to join the security team of the Vice-president.
The police chief during the time of former president Rodrigo Duterte encouraged former policemen and soldiers “good in unarmed combat” to serve as Duterte-Carpio’s additional bodyguards even without salaries.
In his social media announcement, however, Dela Rosa did not explain how possible infiltrators can be prevented from infiltrating the Vice-president’s security arrangements.
Another Duterte ally, Sen. Robinhood Padilla, saw merits in Dela Rosa’s initiative and even suggested former rebels “with martial arts skills” to beef up the Vice-president’s security.
Sen. Imee Marcos, the President’s elder sister, meantime asked for the reinstatement of the 75 police bodyguards for the Vice-president.
Known as the chief broker of the Marcos-Duterte election tandem in 2022, Sen. Marcos said the Vice-president deserved an inflated security unit being the second highest official of the Philippines aside from being “a staunch defender of law and order.”
