Lawmakers not yet done lashing back at Sara Duterte

Sara Duterte —Screengrab from Facebook of DepEd Philippines

Members of both houses of Congress on Friday swiped back at Vice President Sara Duterte for insinuating on Thursday at government neglect or wrongdoing.

Senate President Francis Escudero on Friday said he was perplexed that Duterte should take up the matter of a comprehensive flood control program when her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, failed to implement a program in six years while the Marcos administration has not even been in office for three years.

“Flooding has been a perennial problem. If only something had been done previously, then we could have started implementing now,” Escudero said.

The Vice President’s brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, has been in Congress since 2019 and was even deputy speaker during the 18th Congress. Her other brother, incumbent Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, has also been in office since 2019.

READ: Sara Duterte’s rant vs government baffles Escudero: Her dad had 6 yrs

“The statements of … Duterte should not be surprising following her resignation from the Cabinet [as education secretary],” Escudero said in a Viber message.

Escudero acknowledged that Duterte has the right to speak her mind regarding the concerns of ordinary people.

But unlike any other Filipino, he said that the Vice President “can actually suggest or do something tangible about them using her position, resources and platform.”

More pressing problems

“Instead of pointing fingers and passing the blame, it will be better for us to help each other out in addressing the problems of the country and our people,” Escudero said.

“We have other problems, but the focus of the Senate is to address them, and not just point [fingers],” he said.

In the House of Representatives, lawmakers scoffed at Duterte’s claims of government neglect or wrongdoing when the Vice President herself could not even face congressmen during last year’s budget deliberations.

In separate statements, House Assistant Majority Leader and Ako Bicol Rep. Jil Bongalon, Assistant Minority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado, and Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro questioned why Duterte was suddenly raising hell about receiving no support to correct budget problems at the Department of Education.

“What’s wrong? You never mentioned anything like that before. In fact, it was mostly your undersecretaries who were speaking, making it seem like you weren’t aware of what was happening in DepEd,” Bongalon said.

“You were in charge, yet all we heard were statements from your undersecretaries. It seems like you were disconnected from the actual operations of DepEd,” Bongalon added.

Castro, a teacher-lawmaker herself, even pointed out that Duterte even asked for P125 million in confidential funds—a first-of-its-kind request to tap funding normally reserved for security purposes and not for education.

Still no explanation

“That’s not even the agency’s mandate and even now she has not yet sufficiently explained why she needed that,” Castro said. “She has not done a single thing to raise the budget for the DepEd to meet the UN standards of spending 6 percent of the GDP on education either.”

Not only that, but both Bongalon and Castro scored Duterte for failing to address critical issues in the education sector, including the persistent classroom shortage and the lack of substantial salary increases for teachers and education support personnel.

The lawmaker also highlighted unresolved issues under Duterte’s leadership, particularly the Philippines’ poor performance in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment.

“DepEd had nearly two years to improve our students’ proficiency levels, yet we still ranked near the bottom globally. And this happened under your watch, on the very day you resigned as DepEd Secretary,” Bongalon said.

“Stop making excuses for why you resigned,” Castro said.