A failed vice president and education secretary with zero leadership, buried in scandals, and riding only on her last name has decided to run for president. The joke writes itself—except we're the punchline.

So here we are. Sara Duterte, fresh off a spectacular two-year run as the worst DepEd secretary in recent memory, with impeachment complaints stacked on her desk like unpaid bills, has announced she's running for president in 2028. The same woman who spent P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days—that's P11.36 million per day, if anyone's counting—now wants to manage an entire nation's budget. The same education secretary who oversaw classroom shortages balloon from 91,000 to 159,000 under her watch now wants us to believe she can fix what she broke.

Pure entitlement, nothing more. A political dynasty's heir treating the presidency like an inheritance she never had to earn.

THE DEPED DISASTER: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE

Sara Duterte's reign at the Department of Education wasn't just a failure—it was, to many observers, a masterclass in how to turn a crisis into a catastrophe. Students couldn't get textbooks because her office only managed a reported 17 percent disbursement rate for the textbook program. Seventeen percent. That means 83 percent of books that should have reached students never did. But hey, at least she made sure to secure P150 million in confidential funds for DepEd—because nothing says "education priority" like secret money with zero accountability.

ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio didn't mince words when he called her "the worst DepEd secretary ever". And he's right. Under her leadership, the Philippines remained stuck at 77th place out of 81 countries in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment. Only 24 percent of Filipino students could reach basic reading proficiency—meaning we're five to six years behind in learning competencies. A national emergency, ignored - while she was busy liquidating millions in 11 days.

Her so-called MATATAG agenda? Bold announcements with zero follow-through. She promised to relieve teachers of administrative tasks by hiring 10,000 staff—in a system with 50,000 understaffed schools. Basic math apparently wasn't part of her curriculum reform.

And let's talk about those laptops. A P2.9 billion deal for outdated, overpriced devices that became a corruption scandal in the eyes of critics, which she later claimed to be investigating with—wait for it—confidential funds. You can't make this up. The woman overseeing the mess claims she was secretly investigating the mess she was overseeing. It's circular logic at its finest, or as it appears to many in the real world: something that looks very much like a cover-up.

THE P612.5 MILLION QUESTION: WHERE DID IT GO?

But the DepEd debacle is just the opening act. The main event is the Office of the Vice President's highly controversial handling of confidential funds totaling P612.5 million—P500 million from OVP, P112.5 million from DepEd. These weren't distributed over months or quarters. They were spent in record time, in ways that remain heavily questioned, with the now-infamous P125 million disbursed in just 11 days in December 2022.

Commission on Audit reports revealed a spending pattern so brazen it would make a cartel boss blush. P250,000 for an overnight safe house rental. Receipts that lawmakers publicly alleged were fabricated and that they couldn't even pretend to believe. Special Disbursing Officers who encashed massive amounts quarterly and handed them to mysterious "security officers"—because that's totally how legitimate government spending works.

When pressed for accountability, Duterte and her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez offered theater, not transparency. They chose "bratinella defiance," as one columnist aptly put it. The liquidation reports? Confidential. The documents? Missing or suspicious. The explanation? "Trust me."

Seventy-four members of progressive groups filed a plunder complaint in December 2024, citing betrayal of public trust—"the highest form of treachery by a public official". The Office of the Ombudsman is investigating. COA ordered her to return P73.28 million in disallowed expenditures. House committees held seven hearings probing alleged abuse, malversation, and possible plunder.

And her response? Threats.

WHEN CORNERED, THREATEN MURDER

On November 23, 2024, during a semi-siege at Batasan defending Lopez's contempt detention, Vice President Sara Duterte went full unhinged. In a Zoom press conference that will live in infamy, she said she had contracted someone to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were killed first.

"I told him that if I get killed, you kill BBM, Liza Araneta, and Martin Romualdez. No joke, no joke. I gave my orders," she declared.

A sitting vice president. Speaking on camera. In remarks that were later widely cited in complaints as an admission that she was willing to have the president killed.

She later denied making an "assassination threat," claiming others were just saying that. Except we all watched the video. The Department of Justice summoned her for preliminary investigation on grave threats charges. Multiple impeachment complaints cited this exact incident. But sure, Sara—it's everyone else who's lying.

Political analyst Cleve Arguelles called her presidential bid announcement a strategic move to "freeze panic" within her political faction as legal walls close in. Her father faces crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court. She faces impeachment, plunder investigations, and potential criminal prosecution. At best, running for president is a Hail Mary pass - the last desperate move of someone drowning in scandals.

THE STRATEGIC VICTIM CARD: ANNOUNCING EARLY TO CRY PERSECUTION

The timing of Sara Duterte’s announcement was deliberate - calculated desperation disguised as ambition. Several analysts and critics have pointed out what should be obvious to anyone paying attention: she declared more than two years before the 2028 election in a way that conveniently allows her to cast any impeachment proceedings or investigations as attacks on a presidential candidate rather than accountability for a sitting official.

Makabayan bloc lawmakers didn't mince words, calling her premature declaration "a ploy to escape impeachment and other criminal charges." The strategy, as critics describe it, is simple: announce your candidacy early, then claim every investigation, every impeachment complaint, every demand for transparency is just your political opponents trying to destroy your presidential run. Never mind that these investigations started because of her own documented controversies—suddenly it's all about politics, not accountability.

It's the same script she’s used since 2024—label every serious question “political harassment” or a “demolition job.” When her PNP security detail was reduced in July 2024, she claimed political harassment. When COA flagged her confidential funds, she claimed a demolition job. When lawmakers questioned questionable receipts, she claimed persecution. The pattern is obvious: commit questionable acts, get called out, claim victimhood, repeat.

Her announcement came just as fresh impeachment complaints were being filed, making the timing almost comically transparent. To many observers, this looks less like a genuine presidential bid and more like a legal defense strategy masquerading as political ambition. She's trying to build a shield made of candidacy, betting that Filipinos will buy the persecution story instead of remembering the actual controversies that triggered investigations in the first place.

THE "SISIRAAN SI SARA" DELUSION

And right on cue, the DDS faithful have mobilized with their battle cry: "Sisiraan si Sara!" The Duterte social media network of loyalists has roared back to life defending their beleaguered princess. Pro-Duterte influencers are working overtime pushing the "demolition job" spin, painting every expose of her controversies as a coordinated attack by her enemies.

Here's the problem with that defense: You can't destroy a reputation someone already burned to the ground themselves.

What exactly are we supposed to be destroying? Her highly criticized record at DepEd where 83 percent of textbooks reportedly never reached students? Those confidential funds cases that auditors and lawmakers tore apart and partly disallowed? That infamous Zoom statement everyone replayed on loop and cited in complaints? Her cooperative attitude during congressional hearings where she and her chief of staff chose defiance over documentation?

The confidential funds scandal? Her office spent that money. The receipts? Her office produced the documents that lawmakers and complainants alleged were fabricated. The assassination threat complaints? Her own words were played back on national media. The impeachment complaints? Her actions, as alleged by complainants, triggered them. The plunder charges? Her spending patterns, as described in those complaints, justified them in the eyes of those who filed the cases.

There's nothing anyone could do to Sara Duterte that she hasn't already effectively done to herself in the court of public opinion. The investigations are documentation. The impeachment complaints are constitutional accountability mechanisms - filed against someone accused of violating her oath of office. And the public anger is logical. Students sit on floors in overcrowded classrooms while a government official faces serious questions about funds meant for their education.

Her supporters can scream "sisiraan" until they're hoarse, but facts don't care about scripts. The question isn't whether Sara Duterte is being destroyed. The question is whether she'll finally face consequences for the damage, alleged by her critics, to public trust, public education, and any pretense that her family's name still means competent governance.

THE LAST NAME THAT LAUNCHED NOTHING

Here's the reality: Sara Duterte's only political capital is her surname. Not necessarily her record as Davao City mayor—where she did implement some local programs—but the brutal, blood-soaked legacy of her father's drug war, which human rights groups and international bodies have documented as having killed thousands in alleged extrajudicial operations. That's her inheritance. That's her brand.

She rode that name to 32 million votes in 2022, the largest majority for vice president since 1969. Filipinos thought they were getting Davao discipline and order. Instead, they got OVP programs that sound impressive on paper—medical assistance, free rides, school supplies—but pale against her defining controversies: questions over how public funds were used while education burned.

Her father once said the presidency "wasn't a job made for women". Ironic, considering his daughter's failures have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with competence. In the eyes of her critics, Duterte failed not because she's a woman. She failed because she has shown herself to be unqualified for the responsibilities she took on, dogged by serious allegations of corruption, and behaving as if accountability is for other people.

THE INSULT TO FILIPINO INTELLIGENCE

Sara Duterte asking Filipinos to elect her president after this trainwreck of a vice presidency is beyond audacious—it's insulting. She's asking us to forget:

• 68,000 additional classroom shortages under her DepEd leadership

• P612.5 million in confidential funds, including P125 million spent in 11 days, with documentation questioned and partly disallowed

• Remarks that ended up in complaints for grave threats against the sitting president

• Multiple impeachment complaints and plunder charges filed against her

• Zero significant policy achievements beyond press releases and slogans

She's asking us to believe that someone who couldn't handle one department—with its clear mandates, established systems, and documented needs—can somehow run an entire government. That someone who presided over millions in secretive spending and produced nothing measurably transformative deserves to control the national budget. That someone who ends up being accused of threatening to have people killed when questioned about controversies deserves the key to the palace.

Strip away the noise and what you’re left with is a simple question of basic competence and basic decency - two things her record shows she has never been able to demonstrate.

WE DESERVE BETTER

The presidency isn't a participation trophy for dynastic heirs who failed upward. It's not a shield against prosecution. It's not the next logical step for someone whose greatest accomplishment is being born with the right last name.

Come 2028, Filipino voters will have a choice: Reward leaders implicated in failure, alleged corruption, and violence with the highest office in the land, or finally break the cycle that keeps recycling the same names while expecting different results.

Sara Duterte's presidential bid is a symptom of everything broken in Philippine politics. The question isn't whether she's technically allowed to run for president. The question is whether we're finally tired enough of being governed by people who treat public office like family property and public funds like personal allowance.

The answer should be obvious. Whether it will be is another thing entirely.

SOURCES:

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