VP Sara Duterte keeps her security detail under new leadership - AFP

Manila, Philippines – Replacing the head of the security group tasked to protect Vice President Sara Duterte was not out of bounds and instead “within protocol,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Thursday.

The military said Duterte will continue to have an AFP-led security detail only that the group will have a new commander, Lt. Col. Joseph Israel Eleosida, the replacement of Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.

Lachica faces charges before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged misuse of some P125-million confidential funds held by the Office of the Vice President. That legal wrinkle was the basis for his removal from Duterte’s security detail, the AFP said.

Lachica was reassigned back to the Philippine Army less than a week ago on Oct. 4.

“That is within the protocol. Pag may mga cases na involved ang ating commander [If a commander is involved in any legal suit], then they are relieved,” Col. Xerxes Trinidad, chief of the AFP Public Affairs Office, told reporters on the sidelines of the Defense Forum 2025 at Camp Aguinaldo.

He said the AFP Security and Protection Group’s mandate is to protect VIPs, including the vice president.

“Definitely hindi naman nawalan ng security and protective detail ang ating vice president,” Trinidad said.

[TRANSLATION: Definitely, our vice president did not lose her security and protective detail.]

Meanwhile, the AFP is urging the public to sift through what circulates in social media spreading coup rumors. It reiterated that the military is solid, fully upholding the Constitution and maintaining its allegiance to the flag.

“Definitely there are no plans of destabilization among the ranks of the AFP,” Trinidad said.

NewsWatch Plus news anchor Lois Calderon contributed to this report.