By Junex Doronio

MULI NA NAMANG BINANATAN ni Senadora Risa Hontiveros si Vice President Sara Duterte at sinabing kahit noong mayor pa lang ito ng Davao City ay mahilig na ito sa “confidential funds” at sa katunayan ay gumasta ito ng P460 million kada taon mula 2019 hanggang 2022.

Ayon kay Hontiveros, ito ay base sa ulat ng Commission on Audit (COA) at lumabas na mga balita.

“Nakakalula ang halos kalahating bilyong confidential funds ng Davao City kada taon, kung ikukumpara sa confidential fund ng mga malaki at mayamang lungsod gaya ng Makati, Manila at Cebu na hindi man lang umabot sa P100 million,” puna ni Hontiveros.

Pinansin ng senadora ang hilig umano ni Inday Sara sa paggasta ng mga sikretong pondo na nag-umpisa mula noong mayor pa siya ng Davao City at nagpatuloy sa kasalukuyan bilang Vice President, sa kanyang paghingi ng kabuuang P650 million na confidential funds para sa Office of the Vice President (OVP) at sa Department of Education (DepEd) kung saan siya ang Kalihim.

Bagaman may “fiscal autonomy” ang mga local government unit (LGU) sa ilalim ng 1987 Constitution, tinanong ni Hontiveros ang katuwiran o ang kawastuhan ng Davao City noong mayor pa si Inday Sara na magkaroon ng “P460 million in annual confidential funds” mula 2019 hanggang 2022.

Di hamak na mas malaki ito kumpara sa taunang P10 million intelligence funds ng Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) mula 2013 hanggang 2023, dagdag ng oposisyon na mambabatas.

“While Davao City faces existing security challenges, are these challenges really so much worse than China’s incursions and abuses in our territorial waters? Inaagaw na rin ba ng Tsina ang teritoryo nila tulad sa West Philippine Sea?” tanong ni Hontiveros.

Kanyang idinagdag na babanggitin niya ulit ang kuwestiyonableng paggamit ng confidential and intelligence funds sa Senate plenary debates sa mungkahing 2024 budget.

“Ang pera ng taumbayan ay hindi ATM ng mga pulitiko na basta-basta pwedeng gastusin at ubusin,” diin pa ni Hontiveros. (ai/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

COULD THE UNFULFILLED P20 PER KILO OF RICE and confidential funds cause the tumbling down of approval ratings of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte?

In the latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia in September this year, it can be noticed that from 80 percent in the June survey, Marcos’ approval rating fell to 65 percent, while Duterte’s dropped from 84 percent to 73 percent in the same period.

“Although the President and the Vice-President continue to enjoy majority approval scores at the national level and across geographic areas and socio-economic classes, both experience significant erosions in their respective approval ratings during the period June 2023 to September 2023,” Pulse Asia said in its report.

The President’s approval rating of 65 percent – just 15 months into his six-year term – is only one percentage point away from the lowest approval score that former president Rodrigo Duterte got in a Pulse Asia survey.

It can also be noted that FPRRD got an approval grade of 64 percent in the polling firm’s September 2021 census, and it was Rodrigo Duterte’s lowest rating as president of the country.

“Ang tinatahak na landas ni PBBM ay taliwas sa inaasahan ng mayoryang nagluklok sa kanya. Ang bigas na pangunahing pagkain na mahalaga sa mamamayan ang naging batayan ng pagboto sa kasalukuyang administrasyon. Ang pangakong gawing 20 pesos ang kilo ng bigas at di nya kayang pangatawanan ang siyang magiging daan upang masiphayo ang mga umaasa  sa kanya. Ito rin ang magiging daan upang dumausdos ang kanyang popularidad,” socialist-leaning Sanlakas -Cebu secretary general Teodorico “Ka Teody” Duran Navea told Maharlika Nu Media in an exclusive interview.

On the other hand, believed to be aiming for the 2028 presidency, VP and concurrent Education Secretary Sara’s popularity was dented during that period when the controversy about the Department of Education’s memorandum revising the “diktadurang Marcos” (Marcos dictatorship) term to simply “diktadura” (dictatorship) in the Araling Panlipunan subject stirred controversy.

The P125-million confidential funds may also have affected Inday Sara’s popularity.

Pulse Asia, however, said the latest appraisal of PBBM and VP Sara still means Filipinos appreciate their work performance.

In Publicus Asia’s PAHAYAG 2023 Third Quarter survey which was released on September 28, the results also showed a similar decline in the proportion of Pro-Administration sentiment, and an increase in Anti-Administration sentiments although the pollster claimed “these shifts do not appear to have an observable impact on the leanings towards opposition.”

Pro-administration support decreased and experienced a notable decline.

Specifically, the proportion of respondents who expressed Pro-Administration sentiments dropped from 48% in Q2 to 43% in Q3.

This decrease indicates that fewer individuals are aligned with the current administration as well as its priorities compared to the previous quarter, Publicus said. (ai/mnm)

By Vergel Labesig

THE Alliance of Concerned Teachers hit Education Secretary Sara Duterte for “abdicating” her responsibility to lead and protect the education system.

The group lambasted Duterte over her statement that she will not take part in the final decision on the proposal to revise some terminologies in the basic education curriculum pertaining to the Marcos dictatorship.

“It is deeply unsettling that the Education Secretary has chosen to distance herself from this pivotal decision, especially when it concerns the revision of terminologies related to the Marcos Sr. regime, a period marked by human rights violations, corruption, and tyranny,” Vladimer Quetua, the group’s chairperson, said.

“By neglecting her role in this process, VP Sara Duterte is effectively abdicating her responsibility to provide the leadership and guidance necessary to protect the quality and truthfulness of our education system, particularly when it comes to matters as crucial as curriculum revisions. Such revisions hold immense national importance as they directly influence the knowledge and perspectives our students gain about our history and society,” Quetua added.

Although the group acknowledged the need for experts and scholars to make curriculum decisions, he said the Education secretary should “actively participate in these matters considering that the curriculum is one of the fundamental bases of daily teaching.”

“This underscores our concern that her lack of educational background may hinder her ability to effectively oversee the department, potentially leading to misdirection,” Quetua said.

“Mariin din naming kinukundena ang anumang hakbangin na baluktutin at palabnawin ang pag-aaral sa kasaysayan. Nagmumula sa edukasyon ang pagmumulat sa mga kabataan higit lalo pang malagim na yugto ito ng ating kasaysayan. Our educational system should remain a beacon of truth and enlightenment,” he added.

By Vergel Labesig

VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte admitted that technology will play a major role in education, thus the need for the sector to be responsive to its effects on learners.

“We now live in an era where undeniably, technology must be harnessed to improve access, quality, and equality in education,” Duterte said at the 2023 Global Education and Innovation Summit held in Seoul, South Korea Thursday.

Artificial Intelligence, she said, will also certainly create another paradigm shift in education. 

“While this possibility will present newer and greater opportunities, it will also present many uncertainties in our vision of digital education,” she said.

Duterte added that the use of technology “should wrap around critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.”

Critical thinking, she said, helps learners differentiate truthful information from what is not, enabling them to make better judgments and decisions and become productive citizens. 

“We must be responsive to the effects of technology in our educational systems,” she said, adding that education policymakers and experts need to be able to immediately assess the impact of technological innovations on the development of students. 

“The most important result is not the technology itself, but how it affects the development of our students,” Duterte said.

“Lastly, adaptability and sustainability of new technology in education systems must be studied by the end users before implementation,” she said. “We must recognize that some technologies may work for one ecosystem but may not work for others.”

She said the impact and effectivity of technology should be determined by the users — the teachers and students. 

She stressed that the “ultimate result of all our efforts should be the molding of productive global citizens, equipped with 21st-century skills, but with a heart for nation-building.”

By: Junex Doronio

REMINISCENT OF THE bitter experience of former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binary who had been leading the surveys as the preferred presidential bet in 2016 but lost due to corruption charges against him, the controversy of P125-million confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) may gravely affect Vice President Sara Duterte’s chances in a three-way presidential race with Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senator Risa Hontiveros.

Political analyst and University of the Philippines professor Ela Atienza noted that Duterte attacked Hontivero because she perceived the senator as a “threat”.

“The highest ranking opposition now is Risa. But the point is, [Duterte] has to show that she knows something, at lumalabas napakapikon niya, ‘di ba?” Atienza said.

The UP professor also recalled the case of Binay who had to face controversies mid-term and now VP Sara already had to grapple with them in her first year of office.

Failing to give satisfactory answers on how confidential funds of the OVP were used in 2022 when no line item for them existed in the previous budget, Duterte resorted to personal attacks against her critics, singling out Hontiveros and ACT Teachers Representative France Castro.

Atienza said that Duterte engaging in a word war with Hontiveros and trying to dodge explaining her CF only showed that she wasn’t ready to be criticized nor questioned.

“In Davao, she’s spoiled. In Davao, there’s a group of people protecting her, they answer for her. They run the city hall for her. She is very defensive because she’s not used to being criticized. She usually has other people answering for her but this is the national stage,” she said.

On the other hand, sociologist Jayeel Cornelio said that while Sara enjoys tremendous popularity while reaping the benefits of the Duterte brand (thanks to her father, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte), she cannot escape public scrutiny when it comes to issues of corruption. (AI/MNM)

VP and Education Secretary Sara Duterte (left) and Sen. Imee Marcos (right). (Photo courtesy of the Kahimyang Project)

IN A SURPRISING TWIST in the political arena, Senator Imee Marcos openly chided her perceived “BFF’ (best friends forever) in Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte for keeping 433 security personnel ostensibly willing to take the bullet for the country’s second-highest official.

Senator Imee’s first shot at Inday Sara was not only surprising but also unexpected since the two “Alpha females” are publicly close, politically and personally.

In fact, VP Sara Duterte had revealed that it was Senator Imee Marcos who persuaded her to run for the second highest post in the country and not Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who many believe was the one called “tambaloslos” by the feisty VPES (Vice President and Education Secretary) after she tendered her irrevocable resignation as a member of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party, which she ran under in 2022 polls.

“Ang tambaloslos kasi sa Bisaya pwede mo siyang i-interpret na joke and pwede mo rin siyang i-interpret na pagmumura, and pwede mo siyang i-interpret na pang iinsulto,” Inday Sara explained.

Romualdez, a first-degree cousin of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr., is the party president of the Lakas-CMD which has 71 members at the House of Representatives composed of 316 legislators and only one member at the Senate.

The gentleman from Leyte just ignored what some political analysts called an “unstatesmanlike” remark made by SWOH (Sara without an H).

Collins Dictionary defines unstatesmanlike as “not resembling or befitting a political leader whose wisdom, integrity, etc. win great respect.”

Of course, the House Speaker and Senator Imee are also first-degree cousins.

By the way, reliable sources said that Imee is actually gunning for the mayoral seat of Manila, the country’s capital.

That’s why Imee allegedly bought a one-hectare property in Sta. Mesa from former President and ex-Manila Mayor Erap Estrada to prepare for the 2025 mayoralty race in Manila.

If Imee wins as Manila mayor in 2025, this could be a big boost to her cousin Martin’s presidential ambition and may derail Sara’s march to Malacañang in 2028.

Apparently recognizing the immense popularity of Inday Sara who would be a shoo-in if presidential elections were held today, some political operators think that the issues of being abusive in power like having 433 “bodyguards” and the millions of pesos of so-called confidential funds could pull her down.

It can be recalled that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) justified Inday Sara’s creation of the VPSPG (Vice President Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) in June 2022.

The OVP said it is necessary to have a team independent from the Presidential Security Group (PSG) that will protect future vice presidents in case of political differences with the President.

The VPSPG “will inevitably perform even when the Vice President and the President face the misfortune of having a relationship strained or broken by political differences,” just like what had happened between former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and then Vice President Leni Robredo.

This early, signs of cracks in the UniTeam are showing with PBBM getting closer to PH’s old ally the United States in asserting the Philippine sovereignty versus China while Sara is ominously silent on Chinese bullying.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to discern that eventually, PBBM will endorse his cousin Martin Romualdez as the administration standard bearer for the 2028 presidential race.

As they say, blood is thicker than water.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

(ai/mnm)