Image Courtesy of: Inday Sara Duterte (Facebook)
By: Junex Doronio
APPARENTLY AFFECTED by the controversy generated by the P150-million confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) for the Department of Education (DepEd) where she also sits as concurrent head, Vice President Sara Duterte’s popularity as Education Secretary dipped from 66 percent in the second quarter to 60 percent in the third quarter.
This was revealed on Friday by
PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. which said the P150-million CIF for DepEd “is now at the forefront as the most pressing issue hurting her (VP Duterte} overall performance.”
Seemingly, the public being surveyed was not convinced by Duterte’s justification of her CIF that it’s for the DepEd’s anti-insurgency efforts.
“Education is intertwined with national security. It’s important for us to mold children who are patriotic, who will love our country and defend our country,” Duterte said.
The Vice President — eldest daughter of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte noticeably uses her father’s surname instead of her marital name Carpio — is also the co-vice chairman of the government’s anti-communist insurgency task force, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
The elder Duterte once vowed to wipe out the communist insurgency within his six-year-term but failed just like his anti-drug campaign.
PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. claimed that the noncommissioned survey was conducted from September 7 to September 12. Its respondents were randomly drawn from the market research panel of over 200,000 Filipinos maintained by the Singapore office of PureSpectrum, a US-based panel marketplace.
It added that the respondents were spread across five geographical areas — National Capital Region, North Central Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
This latest development was reminiscent of former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay whose popularity declined due to graft charges and eventually lost when he ran for president in 2016.