[COMMENTARY] Sara Duterte’s Educational Critique: The Hypocrisy That Writes Itself

When Sara Duterte talks about the collapse of Philippine education, it’s hard not to miss the absurdity. She had the rare chance to change the system as Education Secretary from 2022 to 2024, yet her track record is defined by blunders, misplaced priorities, and damage that will take years to undo. The moment she calls out what’s broken in schools, she ends up calling out herself.

The PISA Disaster: Collapse Under Her Watch

The sharpest proof of her failure came with the international tests released while she was at the helm. In the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Philippines placed 77th out of 81, with only 24% of students capable of basic reading. By June 2024, things looked even worse: in the creative thinking test, Filipino students scored 14 out of 60, bottom-four in the world. These weren’t inherited numbers—they happened under her stewardship.

When she called the results an “uncomfortable truth,” she couldn’t have chosen a better phrase. The truth is that she was the problem. Just 3% of Filipino students could match the creative thinking skills of average students in Singapore, a painful reminder of her incompetence.

MATATAG Curriculum: Slogan Over Substance

Her flagship reform, the MATATAG Curriculum, was hyped as a major shift. What it really delivered was a watered-down set of subjects—from seven down to five: Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa, and GMRC. A reshuffle dressed up as reform. Instead of lifting learning outcomes, it wrapped failure in nationalist packaging.

Teachers’ groups blasted it for being detached from classroom realities, warning it would stretch workloads by 30% and keep classes running until 8 p.m. Reports from the pilot run described exhausted teachers and stressed students. And when plagiarism was exposed in the “Isang Kaibigan” children’s book, it became the perfect snapshot of her DepEd—mediocrity paraded as achievement.

Generals in Education: Militarization Over Learning

Then came her most baffling move: bringing in retired generals to run DepEd’s administrative branch. Major General Nicolas Mempin and Brigadier General Noel Baluyan, both ex-military, were handed education posts they had no business holding. Their presence showed where Duterte’s priorities lay: not classrooms, but counterinsurgency.

Mempin, once Task Force Davao commander, pocketed ₱80,000 a month as a “technical consultant” for “confidential” policy advice. That detail alone speaks volumes about how little she understood the role of DepEd.

Confidential Funds: ₱612.5 Million Gone in the Dark

Nothing exposed her tenure more than the confidential funds scandal. Between 2022 and 2023, she spent ₱612.5 million, allegedly for surveillance in schools. Even DepEd’s finance officers admitted they didn’t know where the ₱112.5 million for 2023 went.

The liquidation report listed ghost names—like “Mary Grace Piattos,” which sounded more like a snack combo than a person. Her defense? They were “aliases” used in intelligence work. A claim that insulted every taxpayer.

Meanwhile, 165,443 classrooms were still missing, books were scarce, and the Commission on Audit flagged ₱12.3 billion in questionable transactions.

Budget Waste: Money Unspent While Students Starved for Resources

DepEd under Duterte also stumbled on basic budget use. In 2023, only 11% of textbook funds were utilized. The computerization program used up just 23–50% of its budget. Feeding programs, vital for student health and attendance, spent less than half of their allocation.

These lapses weren’t just careless—they left students empty-handed. While international test scores sank, the very programs meant to deliver books, meals, and computers sat idle.

The Boomerang Effect

Here’s the irony: Sara Duterte can’t talk about the failures of education without indicting her own leadership. Mention resource shortages, and it points back to her. Mention poor test scores, and they happened under her. Mention budget waste, and it happened on her watch.

Her old remark that “everybody lies” circles back now. Her time in DepEd was built on lies—about reform, about money, about priorities.

Unfit for Any Higher Office

If she couldn’t deliver in education, how can she be trusted with anything bigger? Her DepEd stint showed everything wrong with governance: political appointees instead of experts, generals in place of educators, slogans in place of solutions, and spending that raised more questions than results.

The billions that disappeared could have built 826 classrooms or delivered 71.6 million textbooks. Instead, students were left with crumbling schools and empty promises.

Conclusion: Her Words Are Her Own Indictment

Sara Duterte’s term at DepEd reflects a broader pattern in Philippine politics: corruption normalized, incompetence rewarded, and the public betrayed. Every time she talks about education, she’s really talking about her own failures.

The real tragedy is that millions of families trusted her with their children’s future. She treated that trust as a stepping stone for political ambition. And now, whenever she criticizes the education system, her words ricochet back—landing squarely on her own record.

Sources

1. Philstar – Philippines ranks near bottom in new PISA test on creative thinking

2. GMA News – VP Sara: PISA 2022 results show ‘uncomfortable truth’

3. GMA News – Filipino students lag behind in creative thinking in PISA report

4. Inquirer – Duterte on PISA results: An uncomfortable truth

5. YouTube – Sara Duterte on PISA results

6. Adobo Magazine – Philippines ranked bottom in creative thinking test

7. Philippine Collegian – Duterte’s incompetent leadership worsens education crisis

8. Inquirer – MATATAG curriculum pilot exhausting teachers

9. Change.org – Reconsider MATATAG Curriculum

10. Tribune – A Real…

11. PIDS – Slingshot blunders and mess Sara left at DepEd

12. Vera Files – When Sara militarized DepEd

13. Philstar – DepEd in the dark on VP Sara’s confidential funds

14. GMA News – House panel terminates probe into P612M confidential fund use

15. Cebu Daily News – VP Sara Duterte: I will not explain confidential fund use

16. Inquirer – Confidential fund recipients’ names were aliases

17. IBON – Sara Duterte’s corruption case: a crushing blow to education

18. PNA – DepEd classroom backlog

19. Inquirer – COA to DepEd: Return ₱12.3B misused budget

20. Cebu Daily News – DepEd spent only 11% of textbook funds in 2023

21. Inquirer – VP Duterte’s remarks on truth-telling are ironic, hollow