(UPDATE) VICE President Sara Duterte said the investigation into government corruption should not stop with flood control projects, but extend to school building program.
“I already mentioned this last year… [but] until now no one is speaking or investigating [it]. It’s not just flood control,” Duterte said.
“They took [the funds] from the school building program and divided it at the House of Representatives, and inserted the list in the House version of the General Appropriations Act, and they inserted it in the Senate,” she added.
If the government is serious against corruption, Duterte said, they should look at the entire budgets of 2024 and 2025, and the alleged blank items that were uncovered by Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab that have yet to be explained by the House of Representatives.
Duterte was secretary of the Department of Education until 2024, when she broke with the administration and resigned.
Speaking from the Netherlands, where she visited her father, detained former president Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president said she agreed with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the conduct of lifestyle checks on both elected and public officials.
“They should not investigate what was written in the SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth), it should be a deep dive, including revealing those who are the dummies of public officials,” Duterte said.
She also said she is in favor of punishing public officials and contractors of ghost and substandard flood control projects.
In an interview with supporters led by former presidential spokesman Harry Roque at The Hague, the Netherlands, on Wednesday afternoon (local time), Duterte said the Commission on Audit has the power to investigate projects that have issues based on their own audit or the investigation of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The vice president, alongside her elder brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo, younger brother Davao acting Mayor Sebastian and youngest sister Veronica, were in the Scheveningen Prison to visit their jailed father, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in relation to his bloody war on drugs.
She said she would not offer any “free advice” to the administration.
“Let’s just watch this circus. Corruption, corruption and corruption then they will just focus on flood control. There are many projects in government. I don’t want to give free legal and professional advice to this administration as we will never expect anything from them,” Duterte said.
Lifestyle checks gain support
Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. and Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon on Thursday expressed support for a lifestyle check that would cover all government officials.
President Marcos had ordered a lifestyle check for all government officials that would cover the executive department, starting with the DPWH officials.
“I think there is no problem if lifestyle checks will also be conducted on members of Congress, even the judiciary because, of course, it really needs to be all-encompassing and, more importantly, there really are expectations on all government officials, on all government employees that we really should be able to lead and live modest lives,” Ridon said in Filipino and English in a press conference at the House of Representatives.
Abante, chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, said he was in favor of what the President said and that “it needs to include all [government officials]. As Congressman Terry Ridon said, all that as well as the judiciary… really should have a lifestyle check.”
Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption Rep. Bro. Eddie Villanueva supported the President’s order for a lifestyle check.
In a statement on Thursday, Villanueva said that genuine lifestyle checks are “a potent deterrent against corruption and a constant reminder to all that public office is a public trust.”
“All officials in all branches of the government should be subjected into lifestyle check,” Villanueva also said.
Ridon, chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, said the hearing of the House’s infrastructure committee would push through on Sept. 2.
He said that “the committee is not constrained to focus only on flood control” and that “we are also not constrained only to what the president had inspected.”
Ridon also acknowledged the vice president’s call to expand the investigation.
“Actually, what she was saying is very important. The review of all infrastructure projects should be all-encompassing,” he said.
Abante said, “I think the vice president should realize that Congress has all the right to scrutinize the budget because we have the power of the purse. She should give us evidence of what she said about these things. And let Congress investigate and review it.”
“And I would like just the vice president to realize that the budget that we should investigate is just submitted to us,” he said.
Review of flood control budget
Sen. Bam Aquino, meanwhile, called for a reassessment of the proposed P243-billion flood control budget for 2026, saying funds for projects not deemed necessary should be redirected to education and health care.
“If we really concentrate and put the money where the important programs are, what should we really be spending on properly?” Aquino said in English and Filipino.
Aquino, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said the amount allotted for flood projects would likely be reduced, and said he hoped that a portion of it can be shifted to fund free education and universal health care.
“The P243 billion in the 2026 budget for flood control, I’m guessing it will be cut. That will be slashed significantly,” he said.
Aquino said classrooms, learning equipment and health care coverage should be priorities, citing the 166,000-classroom backlog and the lack of universal access to medical services.
Aquino also filed Senate Resolution 28 seeking a review of the DPWH’s use of the P360-billion flood control budget under the 2025 General Appropriations Act, noting that despite P1.47 trillion spent on flood projects from 2009 to 2024, many communities still suffer from poor drainage, outdated pumping stations and inadequate flood risk management. WITH PNA
