HOUSE Deputy Majority Leader and Tingog Partylist Rep. Jude A. Acidre on Sunday said Vice President Sara Duterte should “behave like an educated adult and stop acting like a child” by addressing the core issue on how she spent the confidential funds allotted to her office.
“It’s very disturbing to see the second highest official of the country resorting to petty threats, childish threats. Can she not make sense of the P125 million confidential funds that she must have enjoyed for spending it in just 11 days?” Acidre, chairman of the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, asked.
“I mean these are very serious issues that need to be explained well. Confidential and intelligence funds – by whatever name you call it – are still public funds that are derived from money that every ordinary Filipino pays in the form of taxes. It’s hard-earned money for them,” Acidre insisted.
“Let us give our citizens the respect they truly deserve by addressing this issue,” he stressed.
Acidre observed that the former Davao City mayor and education secretary seems to fit the description of the classic case of a government official who is “feeling entitled.”
“Those who cannot win an argument intelligently resort to the use of their fists or violence. Her display of arrogance only shows what she thinks of our democratic institutions and norms,” Acidre said. “Her demeanor in the press conference, as usual, says it all. It’s very telling.”
“Our most respected VP should stop being childish. She only showed how selfish and self-centered she is. She could not even engage lawmakers in discussions about the CIF and disallowed funds intelligently. And she’s supposed to be a lawyer – only one of unbecoming at that,” he said.
“Resorting to blame game will not solve her problem, most especially her declining ratings. As a leader, she should lead and set the example of how a good leader should be – by making transparent expenditures and disbursements made by her office,” Acidre added.
What is ironic, according to her, is that Duterte is “not fighting for any cause that merits public welfare, but that she – for the longest time since last year – has been complaining because she didn’t get it her way, which is to get more unlimited confidential funds.”
