Malacañang turned Vice President Sara Duterte’s “walang-hiya” insult back on her on Friday, arguing that the people best matched by the word are found within her own household rather than in the Office of the President.
Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said the description belonged to a specific category of wrongdoers, not to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “Ang salitang WH [walang hiya] ay tamang description hindi sa Pangulong Marcos Jr. kundi sa mga alam nating murderer, may mga assassin na kinomomisyon para pumatay ng kalaban, sa mga nanakot ng mga tao sa bar, at sa mga gumagawa ng fake news laban sa iba para palitawing sila ang tama at makabayan,” Castro said, adding that the vice president was in effect describing her own family.
Castro also took aim at how Duterte conducts herself in public. “Ang Bise Presidente kapag walang script na binabasa, walang modo. Lumalabas ang totoong anyo,” she said in a message to reporters, claiming the vice president loses her composure once she steps away from a prepared text.
The exchange traces back to an ambush interview Duterte gave in Davao City during Independence Day. She rejected any intent to remove Marcos from power and said she would rather have the public watch “until the very end” how “shameless” the president is. Duterte framed her position around her oath to uphold the Constitution.
Castro pushed back on that framing, telling Duterte to drop the pretense of goodwill. “Stop being fake and pretending to be nice,” she said, pointing to a speech the vice president delivered in the Netherlands on July 19, 2025, where Duterte stated that everyone wanted Marcos removed from office. Castro argued Duterte could not now distance herself from words she had spoken plainly.
The Palace official went further, suggesting Duterte was masking her actual role in moves against the administration. She claimed that some of the vice president’s allies were behind efforts to sow unrest, and that Duterte should be reining them in if she truly opposed destabilization.
Duterte’s Independence Day remarks had come in reply to questions about reports that retired military officers and other groups were pressing her to spearhead a People Power campaign against Marcos. In that same interview, she tied corruption to the erosion of more than public funds, saying it strips away opportunity, dignity, hope, and freedom.
