Duterte’s Deflection Tactics: Lawmakers Finally Get Answers From Witness

During budget deliberations for the Office of the Vice President (OVP), 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez emerged as a tenacious questioner, successfully extracting answers from both Vice President Sara Duterte and Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, a stakeholder in a POGO operation. Ong, initially evasive, eventually confirmed her association with Whirlwind Corporation, which leased land to the raided POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, and also admitted to working for both Whirlwind and POGO operator Lucky South 99. Gutierrez’s persistent questioning led to a breakthrough in the OVP budget hearing, where Duterte, previously reticent to answer questions about confidential funds, revealed a strategy to avoid answering such queries.