MASA Para Sa Masa 2022"

STATEMENT
November 26, 2024

This is a response to the statement issued by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) on the orders of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, dated November 23, 2024.

The Vice President Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) was created and became an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) wide support and separate unit by virtue of the Department of National Defense (DND) Order signed by Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, dated June 20, 2022, with a corresponding AFP table of personnel and equipment, a move to distinguish the security of the Vice President and make it independent.

After I resigned from the Department of Education, the unit was unceremoniously assigned as a unit under the Presidential Security Command (PSC). Therefore, the security of the Vice President is now under the control of the PSC and as a consequence influenced by the decisions of the Office of the President.

Presuming the PSC is still a non-partisan professional organization, why is the command eerily quiet on the documented threats to me, my family and the OVP personnel. The silence is then proof that the inclusion of VPSPG in the PSC is clearly to undermine my security and nothing else.

Thank you.

SARA Z. DUTERTE
Vice President of the Philippines