Metro Manila, Philippines – Malacañang said the legal restrictions on top officials doing business must be followed, referencing corporate records presented at Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial that listed her as a company director and shareholder.
“No one should be above the law,” Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said Tuesday, Sept. 22, when asked whether the constitutional prohibition on the president, vice president and Cabinet members participating in business management should be strictly observed.
“May batas po. Maliwanag ang batas.So, kung ano po iyong nasa batas iyon lang dapat po ang sundin,” Castro said.
[Translation: There is a law. The law is clear. Whatever the law says must be followed.]
Castro did not say whether Duterte had violated the Constitution as the corporate positions have been held while she is vice president, deferring instead to the Senate, sitting as impeachment court.
A Securities and Exchange Commission official testified Monday that company records listed Duterte as a director of Metro City Chow Foods Corporation after she assumed the vice presidency in 2022. The records also listed her as a shareholder.
Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo earlier questioned the seeming lack of advice to Duterte to divest interests in businesses.
Castro had a veiled comment: “Si VP Sara naman ay malaki na at hindi na dapat binibigyan ng anumang advice, alam niya na po ang kanyang ginagawa.”
[Translation: VP Sara is old enough and does not need advice. She knows what she is doing.]
