Palace hits back after Sara Duterte defends ‘personal’ Australia visit

The government is investigating the kidnapping of Chinese nationals in the country, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro assured the Filipino-Chinese community on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines — A Palace official on Thursday urged Vice President Sara Duterte to disclose the outcome of her recent Australia trip, noting that she performed official functions despite saying the travel was “personal.”

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said this in response to Duterte’s remarks that her critics, particularly the Palace, are “stupid” for allegedly not fully understanding the reason for her trip.

“You know, they don’t understand, sorry, I don’t know if they intentionally don’t want to understand or if those in the administration are just stupid. I’d like to lean towards the latter,” said Duterte in a media interview on Wednesday.

READ: Sara Duterte slams Palace for questioning her overseas trips

But at Thursday’s briefing, Castro pointed out Duterte’s “emotional” remarks in the interview.

“We saw how the Vice President responded, very emotional. As we said, there is a saying that ‘when emotions are high, intelligence is low,’” she said.

Castro noted that if the trip was personal, just like what Duterte had previously explained, then why did she use the Office of the Vice President’s official Facebook page to livestream her message during the “Free Duterte Now” event in Melbourne?

“So, our question is, if this was not a personal trip, I hope she was honest in stating the reason for his visit to Australia and the administration did not oppose it. And the OVP used Facebook; it is part of the government, but for a personal trip. So, there will definitely be confusion and conflict of interest,” said Castro.

She added that aside from the outcomes of her Australia trip, Duterte also needs to disclose who she was with and who funded their travel.

READ: Sara Duterte on personal trip to Australia to join rally for her father

Duterte left for Australia on June 17 and returned to Manila on June 24. During the “Free Duterte Now” event in Melbourne, the second-highest leader of the Philippines claimed that her father, arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte, is receiving “injustices” from the International Criminal Court.

She encouraged her Filipino supporters to “come together” and create a position paper regarding her request, as well as to bring her father’s case to the local Australian media and to the global community through their social media accounts. /dl