VP Sara: ‘No public funds were used for all my travels’

Nation

by Mika Jenymae Rasing16 September 2025

Vice President Sara Duterte during the House Committee on Appropriations budget deliberation for the OVP on September 16, 2025. Screengrab from the House of Representatives/YT.

Vice President Sara Duterte asserted that no public funds were used for all her travels from July 2024 to September 2025.

The House Committee on Appropriations resumed its budget deliberation for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Tuesday, September 16, with VP Duterte being the sole representative.

During the hearing, the Vice President waived her parliamentary courtesy and told lawmakers she would answer the committee’s queries. ACT Teacher’s Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio then questioned VP Duterte on several things, such as, the notice of disallowance with the Commission on Audit (COA) and the use of the OVP's confidential funds.

However, Duterte was stern in explaining that she is not allowed to discuss matters that concern her impeachment case. Thus, leading Tinio to divert the question to her personal trips overseas.

“No public funds were used for all my travels. I did not charge representation, [and] I did not charge tickets. I did not charge per dime for all my travels in the OVP,” Duterte emphasized.

“If you can see in the breakdown of the budget travel for the OVP, you can see that there was zero amount for the Vice President,” she added.

According to Tinio, from July 2024 until September this year, the Vice President has taken 13 overseas trips in total, spanning Asian and Western countries.

“Umaabot po sa at least 60 days po na on-leave ang bise presidente at marami po—pero hindi lahat—ay sinasabing personal leave. Sa mga trips po na ito, ilan po ang naging personal leave at ilan ang on official duty?” Tinio questioned.

She then clarified that under the Civil Service Commission (CSC) rules, there is no allotted leave for the President and Vice President. The only thing that she needs is an approved travel authority from the Office of the President (OP).

“All my travels were issued travel authority by the OP. This implies that all these trips were approved by the OP,” she clarified.

With this, the Vice President responded, enumerating all the destinations she visited. The following are the countries she visited from July 2024 until September 2025, according to VP Duterte:

2024

July