- VP Duterte rejects ‘complete failure’ label as education secretary
VICE PRESIDENT Sara Duterte defended her tenure as Education Secretary, stating that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s actions during her resignation contradicted the notion that her performance was a “complete failure.”
During an interview with Alvin & Tourism in The Hague, Duterte said the issue stemmed from her earlier statement that the country’s education system is still in a “paper and pencil” state compared to other modernized nations.
“I have all the right to say what is the truth about our country. That is covered by our freedom of speech and expression,” Duterte said.
“How can we start thinking of solutions if we don’t accept that our country has a problem?”
On Aug. 20, Palace spokesperson Atty. Claire Castro said during a press briefing that Duterte had every opportunity to clean up the education sector from 2022 to 2024.
“It only shows that her term as DepEd secretary is a complete failure,” Castro said.
Duterte expressed confusion over the “complete failure” label, pointing to what she described as Marcos’s attempts to convince her to stay when she submitted her irrevocable resignation on June 19, 2024.
According to the Vice President, Marcos offered her a different position and even asked for help with the 2025 midterm senatorial elections.”
These were not the actions of a person who viewed me as a failure. These were the actions of a person who needed my work,” she stated.
Duterte revealed she had been holding on to her resignation letter for months, fearing political attacks.
She resigned on June 19, 2024, after a meeting at the Palace. Duterte recounted Marcos’s reaction to her resignation. “He asked me, ‘Why? Why?'” she said, adding that she told him she didn’t want to discuss the reasons.
The vice president also shared a surprising detail about their final face-to-face interaction as Cabinet members.
At around 10:30 a.m. on the day she resigned, as she was leaving, she said Marcos hugged and kissed her goodbye.
“He smelled of alcohol. If I had to guess what kind of alcohol, it would be whiskey,” Duterte said, adding that the encounter confirmed her decision to resign.
“I am not the failure,” she said. “Perhaps the failure is smelling of alcohol at 10:30 in the morning.””So, hindi ko alam saan nangagaling yung sinasabi nilang failure ako sa Department of Education Secretary,” she said.
