MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 11 October) – Did Vice President Sara Duterte try to get too much too soon? If she did, she only has herself to blame if the overeagerness would lead to her own undoing.
The past several weeks had seen her trading blows with lawmakers who opposed the inclusion of confidential funds in the annual budget of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education of which she is the secretary.
In her speech in an event hosted by the Philippine National Police in Butuan City on Oct. 5, Duterte said: “Kung sino man kumokontra sa confidential funds ay kumokontra sa kapayapaan. Kung sino ang kumokontra sa kapayaan ay kalaban ng bayan (Whoever is against confidential funds is against peace. Whoever is against peace is an enemy of the nation).”
The blanket accusation did not help her cause any. On the contrary, it reinforced perceptions that whatever Sara wants, Sara gets. No debate. Just give her the money for the sake of the country’s peace and security, her mantra every time she’s pressed for an explanation.
Unfortunately for Duterte, the opposition did not budge. Her position became more untenable with the revelation that in a letter dated Aug. 22, 2022 to the Department of Budget and Management she asked for a total of P403.46-million budget augmentation to “ensure continuous operations of the OVP under the current year.”
In her letter, Duterte asked for P250 million in confidential funds. The Office of the President only transferred P125 million in CF to the OVP. The amount was spent in just 11 days, another revelation that shocked and enraged the taxpaying public. Note that her predecessor, Leni Robredo did not have confidential funds for her entire six-year term.
But a curious, if interesting, angle was how Duterte’s letter found its way to opposition Congressman Edcel Lagman, the current Liberal Party president. There can only be one answer: it was deliberately leaked by the OP.
It seems 2023 is beginning to smell like 2028.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com.)
