Leaders from both houses of Congress on Friday urged Vice President Sara Duterte to put a stop to the blaming spree she has been waging against government officials and institutions while she remains in absentia.
Senate President Francis Escudero called on the elusive vice president to stop blaming the Marcos administration for the problems hounding the country, and instead, help the government in addressing the various challenges it is currently facing.
The Senate leader said it is baffling that the vice president would castigate the Marcos Administration on the country’s supposed lack of a flood mitigation masterplan when the government under her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, never came out with such a plan in its six years in power.
Escudero added that if the Duterte Administration had the foresight to draw up a masterplan to address flooding, then, the incumbent leadership could have simply implemented it.
At the lower chamber, House Assistant Majority Leader Jil Bongalon of the Ako Bicol Partylist said that Vice President Duterte should have sounded the alarm on her suspected mishandling of Department of Education (DepEd) funds when she was still education secretary.
“If there were indeed budget issues, why raise them only now? It’s easy to blame others, but real leadership is about finding solutions and taking responsibility,” argued Bongalon, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Duterte recently claimed that the government’s budget, as detailed in the General Appropriations Act, has been mishandled, leading to inefficiencies and unresolved issues in various departments.
However, Bongalon, one of Congress’ so-called “Young Guns,” challenged Duterte’s assertions, pointing out that she never protested about budget mishandling during her tenure.
“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,” the lawmaker 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 told the vice president.
In the latest in a string of statements released online, Duterte called out the incumbent administration for its alleged incompetence in disaster management.
“l am using my position, resources and platform to be the voice to show our government officials how to command,” Duterte stressed.
The Vice President insisted that during her tenure as Davao City Mayor, she advocated for a comprehensive flood control and drainage plan to guide the City Engineer’s Office (CEO) at the DPWH, ensuring that projects were not created arbitrarily but followed a well-planned strategy.
She also defended the strides made towards flood mitigation during her father’s term.
“The Duterte Administration worked on flood planning. It started in November 2016 and published a Master Plan and Feasibility Study for Flood Control in July 2023,” she wrote in Filipino.
“Maybe you want to fund the infrastructure projects in accordance with the masterplan. Or maybe they are thinking twice because thiat was a Duterte initiative, and they would much rather just destroy it,” the vice president added.
Duterte, whose office has steadfastly refused to confirm here whereabouts since she left for Germany on July 24, stated that “Filipinos deserve better” in the area of disaster response.
The vice president emphasized that leadership is about “faithful service to the people” and they should not be motivated by “cash, cocaine, and champagne.”
However, Bongalon was not impressed by Duterte’s vaunted managerial skills, pointing out the Philippines’ poor performance in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
“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,” she added.
The lawmaker also referenced to other criticisms of DepEd, particularly the department’s reliance on Parents-Teachers Associations to solicit funds for basic classroom needs.
“These should be provided by the agency, not by the parents. This is a clear sign of poor management,” Bongalon said.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline Escudero to Duterte: Stop blaming Marcos admin
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