Vice President Sara Duterte's trust rating is expected to further plummet amid her continuing avoidance of mounting calls to explain the alleged misuse of the confidential funds of her office and the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as its secretary, a House leader said Thursday.

A Pulse Asia survey in September showed Duterte's trust rating dropped to 61 percent from 71 percent in March and June. The recent poll also saw the VP's approval rating dip to 60 from 69 in June. 

The survey was conducted from 6 to 13 September, at the height of the budget hearings in the House of Representatives, wherein Duterte clashed with lawmakers about the "questionable" use of her confidential funds in 2022, which was flagged by the Commission on Audit (CoA). 

She also snubbed—not once but twice—the subsequent budget hearings of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and skipped the House probe into her purported fund mismanagement.

Duterte's defiance resulted in the slash in the OVP's proposed 2025 allocation to P733.198 million from the initial request of P2.026 billion. 

According to Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Duterte's rating will continue to plunge in the coming months owing to her constant refusal to exercise accountability befitting her office, which he suspected was the "key factor" to the significant drop in her performance ratings.

"We are not surprised by the continuous drop in VP Duterte's ratings, especially since she does not explain the use of OVP and DepEd funds…Filipinos expect public officials to be transparent in using government funds," Gonzales said in Filipino. 

"Filipinos are enraged at the improper spending of public funds, especially since she does not appear before the congressional hearing to explain the irregularities found," he added. 

CoA findings showed that of the P125 million confidential funds of the OVP in 2022, P73.287 million was disallowed by the auditing body. 

Based on the CoA's notice of disallowance, the OVP spent P69.8 million on reward payments, of which P10 million was in cash, P34.857 million on various goods, and P24.93 million worth of medicines.

State auditors flagged the spending due to the absence of "documents evidencing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities" to support the said rewards.

Meanwhile, the remaining P3.5 million was used to pay for chairs, desktop computers, and printers, with the OVP failing to specify that the funds were intended for confidential operations or activities.

The P125 million, which the OVP spent in 11 days, was part of the P221.42 million contingent fund of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s office transferred to Duterte's office as secret funds.

Opposition lawmakers earlier insinuated that this was unconstitutional because there was no line item for it in the 2022 General Appropriations Act.

In addition to the P73.287 million in disallowed expenses, CoA also flagged the P164 million in confidential funds of the OVP in 2023, Duterte's first full year in office.

Gonzales highlighted that the repeated so-called irregularities in the use of OVP's allocation already constitute a "possible abuse of confidential funds."

Apart from the issue of secret funds, Duterte is also currently under fire for reportedly leaving the DepEd with a whopping P12.3 billion in disallowances, suspensions, and charges that remained unsettled by the year-end of 2023.

The VP has likewise been under scrutiny over DepEd's failure to deliver crucial projects, including the late distribution of laptops and other e-learning equipment.

House lawmakers also hit her for the P5.69 billion in food supplies that allegedly went to waste under the DepEd's feeding program.

The 2023 audit report revealed several deficiencies in the program's implementation, including the delivery of moldy, insect-infested nutribuns, rotting food items, unsanitary packaging, and mislabeled manufacturing and expiry details to various schools.

Duterte headed the DepEd for nearly two years until she resigned on 19 June. She was replaced by seasoned lawmaker Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara.

Despite the never-ending allegations, Duterte repeatedly denied any misuse of the OVP's and DepEd's funds. 

She maintained that such accusations were part of a political attack against her to derail her aspirations in the 2028 presidential polls.