A LAWMAKER on Monday, said Vice President Sara Duterte’s declining trust and approval ratings could be linked to her refusal to answer questions during the House investigation regarding the use of confidential and intelligence funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) when she was still its secretary.
“Yes, of course! Because she’s hiding the things she’s being asked about, not just by the congressmen but also by the people. It means that if you continue to hide and continue not to answer the questions that you should answer, your rating will really go down because how can our fellow Filipinos trust you if you don’t answer the questions asked of you?” said TVP Party-list Representative Jose “Bong” Teves Jr.
The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s investigation into the use of confidential and intelligence funds by the OVP and DepEd will continue tomorrow morning.
“Of course, what we’re asking is — where did her confidential fund go, which she couldn’t answer for 11 days, the P11 million was gone. And the P70+ million that we’re looking for. Of course, that’s what we’re asking now. And of course, that’s what our countrymen really want to know,” Teves said.
Tingog Party-list Representative Jude Acidre agreed that the issue should be thoroughly investigated.
“Well, I think we will have to pursue the line of questioning, especially with regards to the Youth Leadership Summit and all the other programs related to the use of the confidential funds. By the amount alone involved, they said before by other members of the committee that this really deserves scrutiny. We really need to know how it was used, who used it, and was the use of the confidential funds correct,” Acidre said.
House Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. previously said that the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability may recommend filing a plunder case against Duterte if she fails to explain the P112.5 million in confidential funds when she was still DepEd secretary.
“If you want to be technical about it, is the amount within the bounds of what can be considered plunder? Probably yes. Is it betrayal of public trust? I think the most concrete rule of public trust is the handling of public funds. So if we were to be technical about it, yes. But you see, when we do investigations, we also look at how can we prevent this from happening again. How do we institute and do we strengthen our laws and systems so that this will not happen again? And how do we exact accountability from those who were part of these activities? This is not just about prosecuting one person. This is also about correcting the wrong,” Acidre commented on this.
Duterte’s camp has yet to respond to this.
Duterte’s trust rating plummeted by six percentage points from 65% to 59% in the third quarter survey of OCTA Research this 2024.
Her percentage rating also dropped by eight percentage points from 60% to 52%.
