House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio strongly criticized Vice President Sara Duterte’s recent comments about the Philippine education system being stuck at “paper and pencil” level, calling out her hypocrisy given her dismal performance as DepEd Secretary.
“Vice President Duterte has the audacity to criticize the education system when she herself is the worst Deped secretary ever.” said Rep. Tinio
“VP Duterte even failed to deliver even a tiny fraction of what was expected of her during her tenure as Education Secretary,” Tinio declared. “Walang karapatan magreklamo ang taong hindi nagtrabaho.”
The ACT Teachers representative cited the damning Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) report revealing DepEd’s abysmal budget utilization under Duterte’s leadership, with textbook and learning materials delivery recording only 11% to 17% disbursement rates in 2023 and 2024.
“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? Paano niya nasabing kulang tayo sa teknolohiya eh hindi nga niya naibigay ang mga pangunahing pangangailangan ng mga estudyante?” Tinio questioned.
According to the Commission on Audit (COA) the Department of Education under Vice President Sara Duterte finished building just 192 out of its target of 6,379 new classrooms in 2023.
“Mas inatupag pa niya ang confidential funds sa Deped sa halip ng learning crisis. You are definitely the worst Deped secretary ever!!” said Tinio
The lawmaker emphasized that the education crisis VP Duterte now criticizes is largely a product of her own and the Marcos administration’s failures.
“Under her watch, school-based feeding programs achieved only 48% implementation while billions of pesos allocated for education remained unutilized. Ang mga batang gutom at walang aklat, paano matututo ng robotics at coding?” Tinio stated.
“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,” he added.
Tinio challenged the Marcos administration to address the root causes of the education crisis through substantial budget increases and systemic reforms.
“Instead of empty rhetoric, we demand action. The government must increase education funding to at least 6% of GDP and address the massive shortages in classrooms, textbooks and equipment. Our teachers also need higher salaries to feed theot families and prevent brain drain,” Tinio declared.
“Ang mga guro at estudyante ay nangangailangan ng konkretong solusyon, hindi ng mga pahayag mula sa mga opisyal na nabigo sa kanilang tungkulin. Our children deserve leaders who deliver, not those who make excuses after their failures,” he concluded.#
