Just after ACT-Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio called Vice President Sara Duterte the “worst DepEd secretary ever,” the Malacañang Palace also chimed in, calling Duterte’s tenure as education secretary “a complete failure.”
This comes after Duterte criticized the country’s education system for falling behind. Speaking before Filipinos in Kuwait on Friday, August 15, the vice president said, “If you can see other countries, they are already modernized, but we are still stuck with paper and pencil. In other countries, their children are already learning about robotics and coding. At age 3 and 4, they already know how to read. While in our country, there are high school students who still do not know how to read.”
But Tinio said that Duterte did not have the right to criticize the education system after failing to perform her duties as the secretary of the Department of Education from 2022 to 2024. In a statement, he pointed out the DepEd’s “abysmal budget utilization” under her leadership, citing a Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department report that said the department’s textbook disbursement rates for textbooks and learning materials were only at 11 to 17 percent.
He also said that the Commission on Audit found that the DepEd under Duterte only built 192 new classrooms out of its targeted 6,379 in 2023.
“How can she complain about our students lacking access to modern technology when she couldn’t even ensure they had basic textbooks and learning materials?” Tinio said. “Paano niya nasabing kulang tayo sa teknolohiya, e hindi nga niya naibigay ang mga pangunahing pangangailangan ng mga estudyante?”
He added that Duterte had prioritized the confidential funds for the DepEd and the Office of the Vice President over the learning crisis. “She speaks of high school students who cannot read, but conveniently ignores that this learning crisis worsened under her leadership. The UNICEF statistics she cites are an indictment of her own performance, not just the educational system.”
Meanwhile, in a Palace press briefing on Wednesday, August 20, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said that Duterte had passed on the chance to address the country’s education crisis. “Dalawang taon halos na siya ay dapat nagtrabaho,” said Castro. “Kung ano man ang kanyang nirereklamo, dapat natupad sana niya ito sa kanyang panahon.”
The Palace also assured the students and teachers that Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, who replaced Duterte after she stepped down in June 2024, is “cleaning up” the issues left behind by Duterte. She also said that modernization efforts under the DepEd are underway with the distribution of over a million gadgets, laptops, and other learning materials.
