Vice President and former DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte —Photo from the House of Representatives
MANILA, Philippines — Two neophyte lawmakers on Sunday urged Vice President Sara Duterte to explain the P5.6 billion in wasted food under the Department of Education’s feeding program during her stint as Secretary, asserting there was nothing political in calling for her to be forthright and transparent in the use of public funds.
Assistant Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun said in Tagalog: “This is not an issue of politics but of transparency and accountability. The public has the right to be informed of what happened to billions of funds that should have been used to benefit children who needed it.”
The Zambales representative pointed out that Duterte should address the lapses that led to the failure of a program intended to provide critical nutrition to students.
The Commission on Audit’s report showed that in the 2023 Deped feeding program, moldy and insect-infested nutribuns, as well as rotting and mislabeled food items, were delivered to several public schools in Aurora province, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental, Iligan, and Quezon City.
“Instead of blaming others, it would be better for VP Duterte to face the truth. Some P5.6 billion worth [of] food was wasted and did not benefit the kids. As the head of the DepEd at the time, she should have ensured the proper implementation of the program. This is clearly command responsibility. This is not a matter of politics but of the proper use of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Khonghun was the lawmaker who on August 27 moved to defer to Sept. 10 the termination of the Office of the Vice President’s proposed 2025 P2.07-billion budget hearing at the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations.
Duterte refused to answer questions from lawmakers about the OVP’s regular budget utilization and her use of confidential funds, some P125 million as Vice President and P112.5 million as former Deped Secretary.
Duterte repeatedly alternated between, “I would like to forego the opportunity to defend the OVP budget through a question-and-answer format and I will leave it to the House to decide on the budget submitted,” and “We have submitted our responses and we assure our full cooperation with the ongoing audit (of the COA).”
The COA issued a notice of disallowance for the alleged misuse of a huge chunk of the P125 million in confidential funds to the OVP, which was spent in 11 days in December 2022, and ordered the return of around P73 million supposedly used in surveillance and other related activities for which no supporting documents were submitted.
Meanwhile, Assistant Majority Leader and La Union Rep Francisco Paolo Ortega V advised Duterte to stop fabricating a supposed alliance between the Makabayan bloc, Speaker Martin Romualdez, and President Marcos and focus instead on addressing the COA findings.
Ortega cited the Marcos administration’s continuing efforts in delivering social services and tangible relief directly to Filipinos, particularly indigent families, through programs “making a real difference.”
“The administration, with Speaker Romualdez, continues to aid the poor and alleviate the plight of our countrymen. But VP Sara needs to address her lapses as Education Secretary. The wasted funds was a huge loss for the school children who would have benefited from the program,” Ortega pointed out.
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