No adverse findings on creation of security, protection group — OVP

From the Sun Star-Davao (Sep 5, 2023): No adverse findings on creation of security, protection group — OVP (By IAN CARL ESPINOSA)

Photo creidt to OVP

THE Office of the Vice-President (OVP) claims that there are no adverse findings on the creation of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG), which deploys 433 personnel.

In a statement, the VPSPG was created to be a group independent from the Presidential Security Group (PSG). However, it emphasizes that the deployment of VPSPG will only depend on the assessment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

It also added that the VPSPG’s aim is to “wholly provide all future Philippine Vice Presidents with necessary security and protection.”

“The Commission on Audit found no adverse finding on the creation of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group,” the OVP said, adding that the group “will wholly provide all future Philippine Vice Presidents with necessary security and protection, a fundamental task that it will inevitably perform even when the Vice President and the President face the misfortune of having a relationship strained or broken by political differences — a troubling situation we have seen during the past administration,” the statement wrote.

The OVP also said that comparisons between Vice President Sara Duterte and the security personnel of former Vice Presidents are “absurd and completely lacking basis”.

From July 2022 to August 2023, the OVP in a statement had deployed 252 personnel for the second half of 2022, 93 for the first quarter of 2023, 118 for the second quarter of 2023, and 21 for the months of July and August.

"The OVP remains grateful to the AFP and PNP for supporting the VPSPG and OVP," the agency added.

According to the latest audit report from the Commission on Audit, 433 people served as part of Vice President Sara Duterte's security and protection group in 2022, a 455 percent increase from the 78 detailed military personnel under the office in 2021 during the last full term of Leni Robredo.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1971799/davao/local-news/no-adverse-findings-on-creation-of-security-protection-group-ovp