The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns Vice President Sara Duterte for stonewalling legislative hearings on the budget allocated to her offices, as her behavior and the government’s failure to keep it in check are ultimately detrimental to labor and human rights.

On social media, videos of the vice-president have become viral: first, refusing to answer Senator Risa Hontiveros’ questions about the proposed budget of the Department of Education, and second refusing to answer Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas and ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro’s questions about the P125-million confidential funds given to the Office of the Vice President in 2022.

The questions raised against Sara Duterte are all legitimate, but her responses are deplorable, mostly attacking the legislators who were asking her questions. Instead of enlightening the legislature and the public about her use of government funds, she has engaged in what Rep. Castro correctly calls “squid tactics,” and she is rightly being ridiculed and criticized on social media for these.

Sara Duterte’s behavior is ultimately detrimental to labor and human rights in the country. For labor and human rights to be upheld, the government must observe transparency and accountability, and therefore the principle of checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of a presidential system.

Untransparent and unaccountable leaders are bad for labor and human rights. If government leaders are not transparent about how they use public funds, if they are not accountable for how they use those funds, they will go scot-free even if they violate rights, through acts either of commission or omission. We have seen this under the presidency of Sara Duterte’s father, a notorious rights violator.

Corruption in government and the plunder of public funds are also violations of labor and human rights. When public funds that should go to much-needed government services to workers and the poor are being pocketed by private interests, labor and human rights suffer. 

The right to education of workers’ children is jeopardized when public funds that should go to public schools are stolen by government officials or their private-sector friends among contractors. Workers’ right to just and favorable conditions of work is violated when public funds that should be spent for labor inspections in the workplace go to corruption via confidential funds.

In the interest of the public, Sara Duterte should be held accountable for how her offices spent public funds. The funds currently under scrutiny are not the only issue; she is the vice-president of the country who is setting an example to all government leaders in spending the people’s money and in not upholding transparency and accountability.###