Vice President Sara Duterte has thrown her support behind President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s call for lifestyle checks on public officials, but she stressed that the probe should go beyond surface-level reviews and include a thorough investigation of “dummies” allegedly used to conceal ill-gotten wealth.
“They should,” Duterte said when asked in The Hague, Netherlands, about the President’s directive. She emphasized that the lifestyle checks must not be limited to elected leaders. “It shouldn’t just be the elected public officials. It should also include the appointed officials. And it shouldn’t only be on the surface, like whatever is declared in the SALN (Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth). It should be a deep dive that involves exposing dummies.”
Duterte repeated her call to “expose the dummies employed by public officials,” underscoring the need for genuine accountability in the wake of corruption allegations. Marcos earlier ordered the lifestyle checks starting with officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), amid investigations into alleged irregularities in flood-control projects.
Still, the vice president distanced herself from advising the President on how to handle the controversies. Instead, she offered a biting remark: “Let’s just watch them in their circus. Let’s just watch them in their zarzuela.”
Duterte also criticized how the spotlight on corruption seems limited to flood-control projects. “Corruption, corruption, and yet it’s only about flood control. There are so many government projects, not just flood control,” she pointed out.
