‘Sara, the second most powerful official of the land, became the object of unrestrained and mounting criticisms.’
VICE President Sara Duterte’s rants against the Marcos administration since she resigned as Education secretary have triggered a series of backlash from lawmakers.
She started her political tirades with complaints on budget issues that allegedly prevented her from coming up with reforms in the education sector and then went on to attack President Bongbong Marcos’ supposed lack of a master plan to fix the perennial problem of massive flooding.
Senate President Chiz Escudero issued a swift rebuttal, saying that Sara’s father had six years but failed to fix the country’s notorious flood problems. This triggered similar critical responses from both houses of Congress.
Several congressmen from the Visayas and Davao Region pointed out that while the Duterte family had ruled Davao City for many years, they had neglected to solve the flooding problem there.
Sara, the second most powerful official of the land, became the object of unrestrained and mounting criticisms.
***
It’s a real struggle for UP President Angelo Jimenez to make sense of the new and highly controversial agreement between the military and the university, notably on issues of strategic concerns and research that threaten to trample on human rights and academic freedom. It was promptly met with very stiff resistance from the UP community, especially from the academe.
For those who are wondering, the defense and military establishments and UP have always figured in animosity and hostility even before the declaration of martial law in 1972.
Our history has been faithful to the bloody struggle of the leftist movement that eventually waged war from the mountains and jungles of Luzon and the Visayas. Among those who “fell in the night” were the best and the brightest from the UP Diliman campus.
Jimenez should be more circumspect in breaking up tradition and the progressive and enshrined dissent that has been the very heroic saga of activism and legitimate protest.
In recent years, the military and the police have twice scrapped two separate mutual agreements calling for the approval of the UP administration before the military or police can enter the campus.
There were allegations by the military that some colleges have turned out to be recruiting areas for the armed rebel movement led by the CPP/NDF, which were denied by UP officials, students and community leaders.
