Sara slams govt corruption probe as a 'political zarzuela,' to meet with Robredo at Bicol festival

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Sara Duterte said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could solve corruption in his government if he could only point those behind it, stressing that the current investigation right now is just a political "zarzuela." She also bared plans to potentially meet her predecessor, former vice president and current Naga City Mayor Maria Leonor Robredo, once she returns to the Philippines. Speaking to supporters led, by former presidential spokesman Harry Roque at The Hague, Netherlands on Monday afternoon (local time), Duterte said that the moves by the Marcos administration to investigate the current corruption allegations involving flood control projects were already "too little, too late," She added that the problems of flood control have been there even before the current and even the previous administration of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte. "[A]lam na natin yan lahat. Naging mayor ako 2010, meron ng issue ng flood control corruption. And, worse, mas worse lang sa atin ngayon. Dahil sinasabi ko nga, hindi lang naman flood control projects ‘yung merong corruption (We know that, I became mayor in 2010, there has been an issue of corruption in flood control programs. and it is much worse today, as I have said, flood control projects are not the only ones being corrupted)," Duterte said. She further reiterated her claim that the members of the House of Representatives divided the school building program of the Department of Education and attached those insertions in the House version of the General Appropriations Bill, which, she said, Marcos kenw during a meeting at the Malacanang Palace. Duterte believes that the current investigation in the flood control projects mean that they are "cooking" up issues behind the scene. She said in Filipino that if the President was serious, the investigation would end in a day for as long he could point to the perpetrators of corruption in the budget. "But as you can see, it's like we're watching a zarzuela," said the vice president who would be going back to the Philippines in time for the Penafrancia Festival in Naga City, although she has yet to confirm whether she would meet with Robredo. She also said that she would want to meet with "local government officials of Naga, the entire Bicol Region if the schedule would allow." She added, however, that they would be there "mainly to celebrate with the Bicolanos, to pray with the Bicolanos on their biggest event, the Penafrancia Festival." The Feast of the Our Lady of Penafrancia will be held on September 21.