House leaders on Sunday averred that the trust and performance ratings of Vice President Sara Duterte would continue to drop unless she explains her alleged questionable use of the so-called confidential funds.

Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. cited the P16 million that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent on safehouses in merely 11 days and the more than P15 million for a youth program as likely key contributing factors in the decline of her public trust rating.

“It is expected… Filipinos are waiting for an explanation. We are a democracy that values transparency, especially in public spending. The public’s questions should not be ignored,” Gonzales emphasized.

Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe echoed Gonzales’ viewpoint, saying that Duterte’s purported loss of public trust is merely “natural” because she has continued to evade accountability.

Duterte had been asked by the House to explain her utilization of the confidential funds under the OVP and during her time as secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Duterte’s performance ratings in a recent non-commissioned poll saw an eight-point decline, from 60 percent in July to 52 percent in September. Her trust rating also fell from 65 to 59 percent.

The survey was conducted from 4 September to 7 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents.

Gonzales and Dalipe said that the dip in the ratings of Duterte, who used to top numerous surveys, highlighted a crisis in her public image.

“From an 87 percent trust rating in March 2023 to the current 59 percent, that’s a significant fall,” Dalipe pointed out. “That means something is wrong with how the public perceives her leadership.”

Dalipe stressed that Duterte’s declining ratings in key regions like the National Capital Region and Balance Luzon — where her trust rating dropped by 13 and 9 points, respectively — show that her support system is shrinking beyond Mindanao.

AFP denial

“If she doesn’t act to clarify the issues, she will continue to lose ground, especially in areas where she enjoyed broader support before,” Dalipe warned.

Both funds in question — P16 million and P15.54 million — were part of the OVP and DepEd’s confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The DepEd, which Duterte headed for nearly two years until she resigned on 19 July, has been accused of falsely claiming to have used P15.54 million in secret funds for the Youth Leadership Summits in 2023.

A House investigation revealed that the certificates for the said project were issued by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to the DepEd, which the latter purportedly used to justify the P15.54 million expense for informant rewards.

Military officials told lawmakers that they would not have issued the certificate to the DepEd if they had been made aware that it would be used to justify expenses that never passed through their office.

They asserted that they received no funds from the DepEd and that the AFP and local government units shouldered most of the expenses for the summit.

Meanwhile, receipts for the P16 million used to lease safe houses in 2023, Duterte’s first full year in office, showed that the OVP spent a minimum of P250,000 daily, with P1 million being the highest.