Filipinos could not help but express their anger and frustrations against public officials over social media, especially after Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio was spotted leaving the country on Wednesday morning with her family.
The hashtags #NasaanAngBisePresidente, #SaraDuterte, and #DesignatedSurvivor immediately trended on X (formerly known as Twitter) after a news report showed that Duterte was in the airport departing for Germany.
Duterte’s flight drew the ire of netizens as her travel was scheduled hours before Typhoon ‘Carina’ intensified southwest monsoon rains (Habagat), leaving Metro Manila and nearby provinces in Luzon submerged in floods.
A national broadsheet reported that Duterte left the country with her husband, their children, and her mother Elizabeth Zimmerman. According to the report, the plane carrying the Dutertes left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 1:50 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has yet to announce the reason for Duterte’s flight, but it sent a press release with photos and videos showing some of its staffers preparing to conduct relief efforts for families affected by the typhoon in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon.
“The OVP-DOC (Disaster Operations Center) is currently coordinating with different local government units (LGUs) in the areas affected by Typhoon Carina for the conduct of its relief operations,” the OVP said.
The OVP said it was just waiting for greenlight from the Office of Civil Defense to begin the distribution of its prepositioned relief packs, which contained food items as well as hygiene kits, blankets, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, slippers, expandable water jugs, and other necessities.
Annoyed by her actions, some social media users could not avoid comparing Duterte with her predecessor, former Vice President Leni Robredo, who kept herself busy doing public service during her tenure at the OVP.
Robredo’s non-government organization ‘Angat Buhay’ also appeared in the Top 20 trending topics for the Philippines on X for positive reasons. The NGO was organizing its Bayanihan Volunteer Network to facilitate relief operations as of this posting, according to its Facebook page.
