Protect (us from) Inday Sara

It bugs me no end every time I see all those posters and tarpaulins with the image of Vice President Sara Duterte and the words “PROTECT INDAY SARA” posted along roads and bridges of my hometown of San Pedro, Laguna. Sara Duterte happens to be a frequent visitor to our city presumably because she is a close friend and political ally of the incumbent mayor.

But does VP Sara Duterte really need protection? Based on what I have been witnessing, it is we, the people, who actually need to be protected from Vice President Sara Duterte and her incompetence.

We, the people, are the victims here.

Firstly, we should protect our kids from Sara Duterte. Her children’s book, “Isang Kaibigan” (A Friend), sends the wrong message to children. The storyline isn’t original. It is merely an appropriation of the story “Owly: Just a Little Blue” from the Owly graphic novel series by Andy Runton.

The drawings of the two main characters aren’t original either. The “Kwago” is from the owl in the Duolingo app and the “Loro” is a template of the parrot from the Canva app. Added to this are the factual and grammatical errors in the book as pointed out by teachers.

She is so incompetent she could have simply asked for help from the many talented and skilled teachers in the Department of Education, and yet she obviously failed to do. What makes the matter worse is she wanted to use the people’s money to produce it. Obviously, VP Sara’s book was supposed to depict her as a friend in times of calamity and disaster, but the truth is she is a fake friend who will always take advantage.

Secondly, the people and their money need to be protected from her addiction to Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIFs). She has a penchant for taking billions of the people’s money and not be held responsible or accountable for how she spent it.

In the House of Representatives, she attacked the members of the Committee on Appropriations because they asked her to explain how she utilized her Confidential and Intelligence Funds. She refused to discuss it, claiming it was irrelevant since it concerned the 2023 budget. Of course, we all know it was relevant considering that she has had an alarming pattern of binging and overindulging on confidential funds since she was mayor of Davao City.

During the Covid pandemic years, when the economy was in shambles, she appropriated for herself P460 million yearly in confidential funds. In the six years she was mayor, the Davao LGU spent P2.69 billion in confidential funds.

Thirdly, the people need to be protected from her twisted logic. When she was questioned on why she kept insisting on having confidential funds in the Office of the Vice President and in the Department of Education, she responded that anyone who questioned it had evil motivations.

“Anyone who attacks or undermines funds allocated for peace and order is naturally assumed to have insidious motivations. Such actions go against the protection and well-being of our citizenry. Those who seek to compromise the security and development of our nation jeopardize the very fabric of our society and hinder our progress,” VP Sara reasoned.

Of course, Sara is not the PNP, or the AFP, or the Commander-in-Chief, she is not in charge of maintaining peace and order. But when she is asked her position on China and the West Philippine Sea, she reasons that it‘s not her place to speak on foreign policy.

She is also not the DSWD, but her 2025 budget request covers relief operations which is the mandate of the DSWD. She creates redundancy in the bureaucracy by having satellite offices that merely replicate the functions of the DSWD field offices. When it caters to her personal interests, it matters to her. When it does not benefit her, it is not her place to mind. She is that kind of friend.

We need to be protected from Sara Duterte because she is the biggest threat to our democracy. She has dictatorial tendencies. She raises all the red flags. She exhibits a passive-aggressive nature. She articulates only by sarcasm and name-calling. She resorts to gaslighting when questioned. She has a low regard for the institution of checks and balances, and she has no respect for the rule of law.

Her political propaganda is red-tagging: to make a common enemy of the Left, to create an impression that she is tough on peace and order to gain mass support. She even created her own security force. She placed military generals in the Department of Education and prioritized the implementation of ROTC, instead of improving Filipino students’ proficiency in Math, Science, and English.

So as my final message to our mayor in San Pedro, Laguna: we do not need to protect Inday Sara. She is not in danger. She is the danger.