Glass houses

People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones is an adage that could very well refer to our dear madame Vice President Sara Duterte who, in a letter thanking her supporters among Muslim tribes in Davao last Wednesday, blasted the government, including the House of Representatives, for supposed inadequacies in responding to issues of security, health, and foreign intervention, among others.

Was she exempting herself, the second highest government official who was concurrently secretary of Education until she resigned the latter post with nary an explanation in June, leaving behind a sector with a serious classroom shortage, 91,000 when she assumed the post, ballooning to 159,000 during her term despite the hefty budget her agency was given, P17 billion, in 2024?

Ironically also, the results of a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) global benchmarking test on creative thinking skills that came out on the day she resigned as Education secretary ranked the Philippines in the bottom four among 64 countries. The PISA conducts triennial assessments of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science in 90 countries and some three million students worldwide.

The VP also slammed the government (that she is a part of) for the supposed lack of disaster-prevention infrastructure and a healthcare system which she indicated has not been able to take care of the people’s health effectively.

Her tirade did not spare airport officials who, she said, instead of striving for a world-class facility that cares for the security and privacy of passengers, particularly minors, “are tight-lipped about security threats and release video footage and flight details of departing passengers, including minors.”

Again, that’s a reference to herself, her husband, children, and her mother caught on video departing NAIA for their flight to Germany on 24 July while supertyphoon Carina was buffeting the country, submerging Metro Manila and other regions in floodwaters.

Did she resent that it was revealed to the public, her flying off to Europe on holiday with members of her family — some said to attend a Taylor Swift concert in Munich — while the people back home were being battered by a supertyphoon?

Reacting to her criticism, House members Zambales 1st District Rep. Jefferson Khonghun and La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega V shot back, saying the Vice President should just explain her absence from the country as the supertyphoon raged instead of diverting the people’s minds from that matter.

Added Ortega, “The last we heard from the Vice President was when she left for abroad with her entourage at the height of supertyphoon ‘Carina’ while the President and all of us were preparing for the storm’s onslaught.”

As to “issues of security, infrastructure and health care,” which the Vice President said were not being addressed by government officials, Ortega said, “Enough of the complaints, ma’am. Let’s all work and help each other for the betterment of the country.”

Both congressmen also reminded the Vice President: “Until now Ma’am Sara has yet to explain to the people how she was able to spend P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days.”

Meanwhile, writing in Pilipino, the Vice President raised the issue of foreign interference, charging government leaders with bending to foreign forces wanting to meddle in domestic affairs “like the International Criminal Court” which intends to try her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, for his alleged involvement in the extrajudicial killing of thousands of suspects in the drug war during his term.

The Vice President, ironically, has been thoroughly silent about China’s ownership claims over the country’s territorial waters in the West Philippine Sea and the serious risks that the persistent presence of the Chinese in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone poses on national security.

Perhaps, for her sake, and given her aspirations for higher office, the good madame Vice President at this juncture might consider obtaining the services of a specialist who could adroitly coach her on understanding things, how best to do and say things in dispensing with the responsibilities of public office?

After all, don’t her constituents and the rest of the Filipino people deserve better?