The office of Vice President Sara Duterte said it is looking at filing charges against individuals who claimed that Duterte was using the presidential chopper daily to travel between Manila and Davao City.
“We are studying if that qualifies as a criminal case because a lot of people were fooled or misled by those types of posts,” Office of the Vice President (OVP) spokesperson Reynold Munsayac, quoted by an ABS-CBN News report said. “If we allow those to propagate, sometimes the people will believe it.”
Duterte “doesn’t use government resources for personal purposes,” Munsayac said earlier in the day.
“It’s very clear that there’s malice on the part of the people who made those claims… That’s not true because our Vice President and her family are already based in Manila,” Munsayac said.
Munsayac, in the ABS-CBN report, also said “ït is also improbable for someone to use a helicopter to travel daily from Manila to Davao City” due to the distance between the two cities.
He said Duterte only uses the helicopter for “official functions,” helping her accomplish her duties, ABS-CBN reported.
“Because of her access to helicopters, she is able to finish her obligations within the day. That’s why she said she is able to go home at night. That’s the point of her thanksgiving message,” the official said.
Duterte earlier in a Facebook post thanked President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for allowing her to use the aircraft so she could be with her family.
“Thank you [President Bongbong] and your 250th [Presidential Airlift Wing] for ensuring that wherever I may be found in the country during the day, I am home in time to tuck my children to bed,” Duterte said in a Facebook post, with a picture of her in the government aircraft.
The VP is authorized to use the presidential helicopter, a spokeswoman of the Philippine Air Force said Wednesday, meanwhile said.
PAF spokeswoman Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo said the Bell 412 helicopter posted by the Vice President on her social media account is part of the 250th Presidential Air Wing, ABS-CBN News reported.
“Based on the mandate of the Presidential Airlift Wing of the Philippine Air Force, the helicopters of the 250 are used for the movement of our President, the first family, visiting heads of state, and other local and foreign VIPs,” Castillo said.