Palace chides VP Sara for 'dumpster' quip

MALACAÑANG on Wednesday refuted Vice President Sara Duterte for saying the Philippines is becoming a "dumpster." "Isn't she the one not in the Philippines right now?" Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said in Filipino during a press conference, noting Duterte is an absentee leader. Duterte, who has been abroad since her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested and taken into custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, said that the Philippines, instead of working its way up, was now turning itself into a dumpster. Castro retorted, saying the situation for Filipinos could have been worse if they were under the watch of someone like Duterte. "Won't we be headed faster to a dumpster if our future president or future leader is someone like VP Sara? Someone who would rather go abroad to serve one person — although that's her father — when there are a lot more Filipinos depending on her being the vice president," she said. "She knows her obligations as vice president. Our President (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.), whom she tags as hopeless, works every day. We announce good news every day. But where is our vice president?" Castro added. Duterte was given clearance by the Office of the President to travel to Europe from March 11 to April 30. However, the vice president said she might not return to the Philippines yet to work on her father's defense against charges of crime against humanity for his bloody war on drugs before the ICC.