Vice President Sara Duterte’s performance, trust, and approval ratings will continue to plummet as she evades questions about the alleged misuse and abuse of funds during her stint as education secretary and her own Office of the Vice President (OVP).
This was the fearless forecast of Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. as VP Duterte’s trust rating fell by 22 percentage points from March 2023, when she registered a high trust rating of 83 percent, to 61 percent in September 2024, according to the latest Pulse Asia Survey.
Gonzales said this is because of VP Duterte’s alleged refusal to exercise accountability befitting her office, asserting that this is a key factor contributing to the significant drop in her approval and trust ratings in recent surveys.
“We are not surprised by the continuous drop in VP Duterte’s ratings, especially since she does not provide an explanation regarding the use of OVP and DepEd funds. The public money is being discussed here, so it is her obligation to explain the questionable improper spending of funds,” Gonzales said.
Recent Pulse Asia surveys indicated Duterte was the biggest survey loser after a steep decline in her approval and trust ratings. Her approval mark fell by nine percentage points from 69 percent in June to 60 percent in September, while her trust level dropped by 10 percentage points from 71 percent to 61 percent over the same period.
“So it is not surprising that her ratings are falling because of her constant avoidance of questions about this fund. And I think it will go down. The person is angry at the improper spending of public funds, especially because she does not appear before the Congressional hearing to explain the irregularities found.
Findings from the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed troubling discrepancies in the handling of CIF under Duterte’s leadership. In the fourth quarter of 2022, COA disallowed P73 million out of the P125 million CIF allocated to the OVP.
Moreover, for the first three quarters of 2023, COA flagged at least P164 million out of the P375 million in CIF disbursed by Duterte’s office.
Gonzales also criticized Duterte’s handling of DepEd’s budget during her tenure as education secretary, particularly issues concerning school-based feeding programs and procurement of computers.
