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Vice President Sara Duterte, who seems to give no thoughts about giving us all a rest from her toxic publicity, has once again become the content of today’s headlines when she said, “Kung sino man ang kumokontra sa confidential funds ay kumokontra sa kapayapaan. Kung sino ang kumokontra sa kapayapaan ay kalaban ng bayan (Whoever is against confidential funds is against peace. Whoever is against peace is against the country).”

There’s so much to unpack from this all-or-nothing statement—from the fact that it comes from the Department of Education secretary, to the anti-dissent undertone that promotes more polarization, to the fact that it is a symptom of the lack of accountability among our leaders.

We have to talk about all these things.

The Facts

If for some unbelievable reason, you’re still not up to speed, confidential funds are “the lump-sum amount provided as such in the [General Appropriations Act] for [national government agencies], in appropriation ordinances for [local government units], and in the Corporate Operating Budgets for Government-Owned or -Controlled Operations, for their confidential expenses.”

Confidential expenses are expenses meant to surveil on civilian activities so that an agency’s operations or its mandates go smoothly.

Despite not being security and surveillance agencies, Duterte’s offices, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), were given a total of P530 million in confidential funds by Congress last year. P500 million went to OVP, while P30 million went to DepEd. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are full of Duterte allies.

The OVP received flak this year when it was revealed that P125 of the secret funds were spent in just 19 days. Later, during the plenary debates, it was revealed by Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo and the Commission on Audit that the P125 million—in cash!—were spent in 11 days, something Duterte’s office disputed.

Davao City, where Duterte served as mayor, received P2.697 billion as confidential funds from 2016 to 2022. That amount is more than six times the amount of confidential funds received by Quezon City, the most populous city in the Philippines.

This year, she attempted to continue her confidential funds spree when her office’s proposed budget for 2024 included P650 million secret funds, but the House of Representatives promised to realign that portion of the budget to agencies concerned with national security and defense. This blog still believes that this is not enough since there are still social services that could use more funding. That’s a topic for another day, but for now, let’s focus on the Duterte statements that made headlines.

The Statements

During a speech at an event by the Philippine National Police in Agusan Del Norte province, Duterte branded her secret funds’ critics as anti-peace, and therefore, anti-country.

“Kung sino man ang kumokontra sa confidential funds ay kumokontra sa kapayapaan (Whoever is against confidential funds is against peace),” Duterte said Thursday, Oct. 5. “Kung sino ang kumokontra sa kapayapaan ay kalaban ng bayan (Whoever is against peace is against the country).”

Just a day before, she made a similar statement during another PNP event.

“Makinig kayo sa lahat ng sinasabi sa palibot ninyo at tandaan ninyo, kung sino man kumokontra sa confidential funds ay kumokontra sa kapayapaan (Listen to the claims made around you and remember, whoever opposes confidential funds also opposes peace),” she said. “Kung sino ang kumokontra sa kapayaan ay kalaban ng bayan (Whoever opposes peace is the enemy of the people).”

For now, let’s forget the fact that the confidential funds are not actually for peacemaking, but for the improvement of the function of an office. We must still unpack everything.

Reminder 1: These statements came from the DepEd secretary

Those two very similar statements in two consecutive days came from the secretary of education.

Ideally, the Department of Education should have a culture of research since most of its employees are teachers, who cannot reach their ranks without doing research.

As mentioned earlier, confidential funds are supposed to help government offices fulfill their mandates and make their operations run smoothly. Why rely on secret funds to do this if the department can just encourage institutional research?

If anyone has “insidious motivations,” I’m not sure it’s the person who demands to know where his/her taxes go.

Remember as well that she is from the camp that talked about “unity” throughout the last elections as if it was the only thing this country needed. A politician who wants unity should not dismiss opposition, but should welcome it and must make every effort to remove any doubt about his/her integrity. After all, blind acceptance is not equivalent to unity.

If the panel chair in a thesis defense asks questions, I don’t think wanting to improve on the researcher’s work is an insidious motivation. Both the panel members and the researchers are united in solving something, but blindly accepting any claim won’t do it.

Reminder 2: Dissent is beneficial to everyone involved

What drew me to the anime “Attack on Titan” and the HBO show “Westworld” is the theme of dissent. Everyone benefits when one questions his/her reality. The protagonists in these shows were made to believe one thing, but because they dared to question their realities, their discoveries changed their lives.

History is forever changed each time people dissent. The Filipinos grew tired of how our colonial master treated us. The Americans one day decided they did not want anything to do with the British rule and then founded the most power country on Earth today. The civil rights activists protested, marched, and did acts of civil disobedience to outlaw discrimination, becoming an inspiration around the world. Women suffrage activists successfully changed minds and laws regarding who may vote. Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence paved the way for Indian independence from British rule. They all achieved their goals differently, but they all were doing one thing. Dissent. Resist. Rebel. Disagree. Oppose. Protest. No matter what you call them, they were all challenges to the status quo.

What Duterte basically wants is to quell dissent and make this country even more polarized. The “significant erosion” of her approval rating in the recent Pulse Asia survey is a testament to the public’s discontent regarding her role.

When she tells the police that the critics of her confidential funds are enemies of peace, she is telling them to go hard on dissent, to suppress any form of criticism. This undermines our democratic principles and practices.

A with-us-or-against-us philosophy will not benefit anyone who operates in secrecy. If one wants people’s trust, he/she should focus on removing doubts rather than attacking the opposition. So far, there has been no effort on the latter from the vice president.

Reminder 3: There has to be accountability

Anyone who is against transparency and accountability is against the country. Those two don’t cost anything. The only requirement is being a decent public servant.

This clapback against her critics is a proof that she has no plans to be transparent and accountable—two things her predecessor received high ratings for from the Commission on Audit.

In 2021, then vice president Leni Robredo said that it is not enough for leaders to be without controversy.

“It is not enough to say that this particular public servant is not corrupt,” she said. “It is very important to make sure that there are systems in place. And when we say accountability, there are a lot of different ways on how to ensure that public officials are accountable.”

Robredo, who lost to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s son and namesake in the 2022 elections, promised to institutionalize allowing the public to know how the government spends every centavo.

What a stark downgrade that we now have someone who demonizes calling for transparency and accountability.