Vice President Sara Duterte has turned the spotlight back on Malacañang, insisting that scrutiny over the use of public money cannot be aimed at the Office of the Vice President alone. In a statement issued Tuesday, August 18, she pressed the Office of the President to open its own books, demanding that every travel authority the Palace grants — along with the expenses and public funds attached to them — be laid out for the public to see.
“Transparency and accountability should not be demanded from a single government office alone,” Duterte said.
Her argument rests on a simple point: the Palace is the office that issues travel clearances across the government, covering not only the Vice President but also its own officials and staff. On that basis, she said Filipinos are entitled to a full accounting of what those trips cost. The Manila Times reported that she framed the demand as a standing expectation going forward, telling the Office of the President that all such authorities and their corresponding costs should be released as a matter of course.
The exchange traces back to the Palace’s handling of information about her movements. Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro had defended disclosing details of Duterte’s travel authority, reasoning that government money pays for the security and personnel who accompany the Vice President on official trips. According to reporting from the Philippine Daily Inquirer tied to OVP budget briefings, the office acknowledged that P7.474 million went toward Duterte’s foreign travels in 2025, chiefly for her security detail and civilian staff — even as the OVP has maintained that no public funds cover her personal expenses abroad.
Duterte has repeatedly cast the publication of her schedule as a safety issue. She warned that making her itinerary public compromises her personal security and leaves her exposed to greater risk, and she urged news organizations to confirm details with her office before running stories.
The dispute crystallized around a trip that never happened. The Office of the President issued Duterte a travel authority on August 17 for a personal visit to Japan running August 19 to 24, at no expense to the government. A day later, the OVP asked the Palace to void that clearance. Duterte said reports describing the trip as set were wrong because her plans had already shifted, and that she had formally notified the Office of the President of the update. She did not explain what prompted the change or offer a revised itinerary.
Castro, for the Palace, confirmed the cancellation plainly, relaying in a message that the Vice President had scrapped the Japan travel authority. Malacañang has previously argued that Duterte remains a public official answerable to the public, a position it has held through earlier rounds of the same fight — including an April episode in which she blamed a last-minute release of documents for derailing a five-country European trip, a claim the Palace rejected by noting she typically receives such papers a day before departure.
