Palace confirms Sara Duterte’s foreign trip from April 23 to May 15

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has confirmed that Vice President Sara Duterte will be out of the country for almost a month while her impeachment proceedings are ongoing before the House of Representatives.

In a message to the Inquirer on Wednesday, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said the Office of the President has issued a travel authority allowing Vice President Sara Duterte to travel to the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom from April 23 to May 15.

Based on Duterte’s request, her 22-day foreign travel will be made while is on leave of absence “at no cost to the government.”

The Vice President’s departure from the country comes while the House of committee on justice is in the middle of hearing the impeachment complaints filed against her. 

READ: AMLC confirms suspicious transactions made by Sara Duterte, kin

From her election in 2022 until her resignation as education secretary in 2024, her foreign trips were mostly official, including bilateral meetings and as council president of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.

By 2025, her foreign travels shifted to personal reasons, including her advocacy of gathering support for the release of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, from the International Criminal Court detention facility in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Duterte had spent 61 days abroad during her 17 publicly known foreign visits in 2025, or almost one-fifth of last year, based on a roundup she recited before House lawmakers for the budget deliberation of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2026 on Sept. 26, 2025.

Malacañang has criticized the frequency of the vice president’s foreign travels, with Palace press officer Claire Castro calling her personal trips as “long vacation days.”

READ: P7.4M spent for Sara Duterte’s security abroad – OVP“I think she should consider that the Philippines also needs her as vice president. She should be working not only for her father,” she said in a briefing on March 19, 2025, a week after Duterte was flown to The Hague.

“Although her feelings right now are understandable, she should also remember that she says millions of Filipinos voted for her, and she needs to serve them as well,” Castro added.

Duterte responded a day later, describing herself as a “multitasker.”

“I have not neglected my work there [back in the Philippines. I speak with my colleagues every day. Only a few projects remain because our budget there is approximately P700 million,” she explained.

In the 2026 national budget, the OVP has only been allotted P56 million in local and foreign travel expenses, the lowest since Duterte assumed office. /das