SARA DUTERTE:
THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (1)
Google gives
the synonyms of unhinged: highly disturbed, unstable, or distraught.
These words
could best describe Sara Duterte, who has risen to the second highest post
without showing much accomplishment. Except for her father’s name, Sara does
not any political capital to use and exploit to reach a national office. She
was a two-term vice mayor and mayor respectively of the southern port city of
Davao.
But her stint
at the Davao City two top LGUs could be regarded as uneventful because she was
not known for any major accomplishment for the city. She merely occupied the
twin posts because her father, Rodrigo, a war lord in that city, disliked the
rise of emerging political stars outside his family and distrusted as well
other politicians, whom he viewed as potential rivals.
Her exposure
to national politics came in 2019, when she led the senatorial slate of the
newly formed Hugpong ng Pagbabago coalition. She was not a senatorial
candidate, but was said to have led the so-called pro-administration senatorial
candidates, who all won after the infamous computer glitch, or malfunction, of
which the purported vote count was not shown on national TV. After seven hours
of non-coverage, or waiting, all pro-administration senatorial bets won without
explanation. The winners are later dubbed as the “seven-hour glitch senators.”
Curiously,
Sara could not claim credit for the Hugpong senatorial victory, which is largely considered a fluke considering the anomalous circumstances.
Her childhood
and adolescent years were not known much as her parents separated during her
formative years. The court has granted her mother’s petition for annulment of
marriage to Rodrigo Duterte on grounds of psychological incapacity. Their
separation could have telling effects on her psychological make-up. She is
known to be temperamental, apparently inheriting his father’s sharp tongue, but
not necessary any shadow of a sharp mind. She is also notorious throwing
tantrums even in public.
One of the
video clips that has gone public show her beating the sheriff, who was
enforcing an eviction order issued by the
court. Contrary to what people thought, Sara even enjoyed the public
disapproval on that public video. She seems to enjoy her public persona of
displaced machismo of a woman of questionable sexual identify like her. In a
single unguarded moment, Sara admitted she could not determine properly if she
is a woman or a man, as she experiences man’s aggressive urges and tendencies.
She has
assumed the post of Deped secretary, as BBM rejected her overtures to become
the defense secretary. In a way, BBM’s move to install her as head of what
could be regarded the office with the largest bureaucracy could be taken as a
coup because Sara would be definitely mired in Deped’s bureaucratic maze. That
post has relegated her into a mere bureaucrat, who signs mountains of papers in
that office. She has not occupied any office of consequence except the bureaucracy
of the government of Davao City, where she was mayor for six years.
Sara does not
bring any advocacy to Deped. Despite the long standing necessity to institute
educational reforms, Sara does not articulate anything that could be regarded
worthwhile. Shortly after she has assumed the post of Deped secretary, Sara
called for the restoration of ROTC, an advocacy which many people described as
untimely, unnecessary, or stupid. She has asked Congress to enact a law for its
return but Congress was not inclined to do it. It could be said that Congress
was more inclined to entertain her than pass it as a law. She also called for a
“toothbrush drill” among grade schoolers, an idiotic task which is better left
to their parents.
When the
controversy involving basketball player John Anthony Amores, who punched his
opponents in the UAAP sanctioned game, Sara came to his rescue, defending him
and writing him a letter supported his violent tendencies. Sara did not know
that her letter created more question about her character than Amores, who is
being viewed in the league as a recidivist. People questioned her fitness for
her current public office because she expressed support for violence in her
letter to Amores, who was suspended to play basketball at UAAP and dismissed as
a player in JRU basketball team.
Sara’s
fitness for a national office was also questioned, when she attended a
Christmas Party, where she was dressed in a comical attire. It became a butt of
joke among netizens as it showed how lowly she has regarded her office.
Lately, Sara
has scored the highest among the people, who could be regarded as presidential
hopefuls in 2028. But the survey was not taken seriously because it was held
too early in the game. There are for more years to pass and discern before the
actual political cards would be drawn and known. #
SARA DUTERTE:
THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (2)
THE strangest
thing has happened when BBM named Sara Duterte as the education secretary. As
head of the Department of Education, the biggest office in the government
bureaucracy, the Philippines has the situation when the education secretary
needs an education. As Deped secretary, Sara needs to address the issues
confronting basic education and propose solutions and advocacies to promote
educational reforms. But she is no educator. She is just an empty minded small
town politician.
The biggest
issue confronting Philippine education is underinvestment. Among the East Asian
nations, the Philippines spends the least for the education of its people,
especially in basic education, when its people are being taught the basic
skills of reading, writing, and counting. Basic education is a basic right of
every person, yet the education secretary hardly speaks on how to provide it to
the citizens.
The ultimate
objective of Philippine education is to
make Filipinos proficient of the basic skills, respectful of human rights,
develop personal discipline highlighted by spiritual and moral values, reason
and critical thinking, and mindful of science and technology, and occupied by
nationalism based on knowledge of history and cultural heritage. Sara hardly
understands them.
These are
alien to the education secretary, whose limited mind is occupied by the
restoration of ROTC and “toothbrush drill.” Is she suffering from mental
constipation?
Providing
basic education to make every Filipino functionally literate and numerate is
Sara’s job. She has a limited, inferior, and scattered brain that could not
focus on her fundamental job as the education secretary. Making basic education
more universal so that every Filipino could have it is something that she
hardly knows.
It is most
astounding or even astonishing to notice that Sara, the education secretary,
hardly talks or discusses steps to raise the quality of basic education. She
does not know ways to provide skills and form knowledge to make every Filipino
a productive member of society. Sara is too far detached from the noble
objectives of her current office.
Underinvestment
in education remains a major problem in the Philippines. We are not pouring
sufficient money and resources on this field. While other nations have invested
over 3% of their GNP on education, our country spends not even 1.5% of GNP
on education. Sara has not addressed this pitiful state. She is too detached
even to the basic issues confronting education.
Worse, she
was proposing the further dissipation of the limited resources by proposing
ROTC restoration instead. Her heart and mind is not in Philippine education and
the advancement of the Filipino youth.
It would be a
pity if she becomes the next president. It would be national suicide. She
belongs to the Inferior Davao power bloc.
SARA DUTERTE:
THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (3)
The
monumental ignorance of the current Education Secretary is not limited alone on
Deped, the exalted office she leads but on the teachers, who constitute the
single most important sector in the education establishment. Sara Duterte is
not an educator but a local government official with unpredictable temper, void
of management skills, and limited knowledge on the teachers’ conditions.
It is fair that she bears the
unpalatable oxymoronic tag: “the uneducated educator.”
The teacher
is the single most important factor in Philippine education. Teachers are
always at the heart of the education establishment. The country has about
almost a million teachers and they constitute the single biggest occupational
group. Any policy on teachers bears
heavily on the educational system and the nation at large. In most instances,
it’s the teacher who defines our education. It’s a sound management policy to
take care of our teachers.
But Sara
Duterte, the Education Secretary, does not know or understand the immensity of
the teacher’s role in society. She does not have the key understanding and
management skills to handle her own constituency. She takes the teachers
lightly. Akala niya mga mamamayan ng Davao City na kasing tanga niya. When ACT party List Rep. France Castro
articulated what she thought the teachers need, Sara was quick to answer her by
red-tagging the teachers. Yes, that was
all she knows. Red tagging the biggest occupational group in the country is the
only thing she knows best. There’s nothing lofty in her.
Sara Duterte,
as the education secretary, does not know how to handle the teachers. She does
not know how to elevate and improve the quality of teachers so that they could
adequately educate our youth. Sara Duterte does not have a program to educate
the educators. She has no program to make them effective teachers to our youth.
She is still the small town mayor, wo has no concept of nation-building and
national development.
Education
works when educating the country’s educators is pursued without letup. Sara
Duterte should pursue a program to uplift the teachers from stagnation so that
they could effectively teach their students. Sara Duterte, as the Deped head,
should articulate her vision to improve our education so that the Filipino
students would not remain at the tail end when compared to other citizens.
It takes a
proper alchemy of vision and readiness of action to lift the condition of
teachers. But Sara Duterte has neither. No vision. No readiness of action. She
has no respect for them. She has only the capacity and capability for red
tagging.
SARA DUTERTE:
THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (4)
Because of
the growing public concern on the declining quality of Phl education, even our
educators have focused their efforts to improve the quality of teachers and
their training programs. It’s doubtful if Sara Duterte, the current Education
Secretary, understands the monumental task to address this issue. Her concern
is to red tag our teachers, as if they are bunch of communists out to sabotage
nation-building.
It is widely
accepted that the teacher is poorly trained. In most instances, the teacher does
not possess the minimum qualifications to teach the Filipino and provide them
the basic skills for effective citizenship and living. A big proportion of our
high school teachers, for instance, lack the minimal preparations to teach
mathematics and science. Vocational teachers mostly don’t possess the required
industrial training or experience.
Poor teacher
training and the low quality of students in teacher training have been pointed
out as big factors for the declining quality of our basic education. The issue
of addressing them is best left to the Education Secretary. Unfortunately, the
current Education Secretary lacks the credentials to be a qualified educator.
She does not understand the necessity of improving the quality of educators.
For Sara Duterte’s
information, the professionalization of our teachers is a continuing process.
But its status and objectives have not fully articulated by education
officials, primarily the Education Secretary. The red tagging Education
Secretary appears clueless on how this process has to proceed. She is nowhere
to be seen and perceived in this process. Her mind is elsewhere to show she is
totally unconnected to the Deped she is supposed to serve.
She has
neither articulated the career paths every teacher has to take nor talked about
the necessity for preservice teacher education. Likewise, the Education
Secretary appears completely ignorant and detached on the teachers’ right to
associate freely as embodied ion the pertinent ILO Conventions the PHL has
ratified and even the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers (RA 4670). To describe the Education Secretary as
unhinged is an understatement. She is simply stupid. She is an ignoramus of the
lowest kind.
Our teachers
are among the most overworked professionals. Aside from teaching that requires
training, dedication, and commitment, they also attend to other jobs like
election duties, environmental or ecological activities, nutrition and health
projects, among other things. They also perform voluntary jobs aside from the
usual stuff. Does Sara Duterte know and understand them? You’re asking for the
moon. #
