Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Makes Accusations against First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President claimed that First Lady Liza Marcos is allegedly behind the envelopes with cash given to DepEd officials.
Amid Vice Pres. Duterte being questioned about the Confidential Funds of DepEd when she was the education secretary, there are claims that the former DepEd Chief gave away money to her subordinates during her term.
A former DepEd official accused Duterte of allegedly showering her subordinates with money when she was the chief of the Department of Education. According to ex-DepEd official Gloria Mercado who was the head of the Procuring Entity (HoPE), she allegedly got a total of 9 envelopes with cash between February 2023 to September 2023.
Aside from Mercado, DepEd chief accountant Ma. Rhunna Catalan also claimed that she got white envelopes with cash from Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. According to her, she thought that the money was from the personal pockets of the then-DepEd Secretary so she accepted it.
Catalan who has been with DepEd for 36 years now said that there was “minimal amount” inside the envelope that did not reach P25,000. According to her, if she was told that it was from the Confidential Funds, she would have refused to accept the money.
Both Mercado and Catalan claimed that the envelopes with cash were allegedly handed by Sunshine Fajarda, the wife of the disbursement officer. Recently, Vice Pres. Duterte made a claim regarding the cash-filled envelopes that some DepEd officials received.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte claimed that it was allegedly First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos who gave the money to be given to the DepEd officials. The Vice President accused the First Lady of allegedly being the one who gave her instructions about the money.
“Liza Marcos, naaalala mo, nagpadala ka sa akin ng video? Sinabihan mo ako saan kukunin ang pera. Pinakita mo ang mukha ng tao doon sa video message mo. You sent me written instructions about money, millions a month. Anong nakalagay sa envelope? Department of Education. Ano ginawa ko?” the Vice President said.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s rant against First Lady Liza Marcos came amid the souring relationship between her and Pres. Bongbong Marcos. Based on the report, she even slammed the First Lady of allegedly giving away public funds while she is not part of the government.
“Wala ka ngang posisyon sa gobyerno, namimigay ka ng pera ng gobyerno,” Vice Pres. Duterte said.
The First Lady has yet to comment on Duterte’s remarks. Aside from the accusation, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also said that campaign promises like the P20 per kilo rice which was a campaign vow of Marcos Jr. must be fulfilled.