Marcos skips VP Sara in caretaker role amid Lao PDR visit

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not list Vice President Sara Duterte as the Philippines’ caretaker while he travels to Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.  

Marcos often designates the vice president as caretaker during his many foreign trips.

In a message to reporters, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez said that Marcos formed an Executive Committee instead. 

“It is an Executive Committee chaired by ES (Executive Secretary), with Secretaries of Justice and Agrarian Reform as members,” Chavez said.

Marcos will be in Laos from October 8 to 11 for the ASEAN. This year’s theme is "ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience.”

Once allies to secure victory in the 2022 elections, the rift between Marcos and Duterte has continuously widened ever since the vice president was stripped of her proposed confidential funds in 2023. 

A few months later in 2024, the Duterte clan, led by former president Rodrigo Duterte, began to openly criticize Marcos. Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte even told Marcos to resign. 

The quiet feud appears to have led the vice president to quit her posts in the Department of Education and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. 

Sara has openly admitted that she was not friends with Marcos, and they only became acquainted during the 2022 national elections.  

In 2022, Marcos designated Sara as one of the country's caretakers during the following foreign travels:

However, no caretaker was appointed, including Sara, during Marcos' October 2022 visit to Singapore.

This was one of the trips Marcos was criticized for, as he was seen attending the Formula 1 Grand Prix instead of focusing on his administrative duties. 

Sara was also named as the country's caretaker in several of Marcos' state visits and multilateral meetings in 2023. These were the following trips where she was appointed as caretaker:

In 2024, these were the foreign travels that Marcos had designated Sara as the country's caretaker: