Visit to Malaysia productive – VP Sara

VICE President Sara Duterte said that she would carry “happy memories” of her visit to Malaysia as part of her presidency of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (Seameo), as well as learning about early childhood education that could be adopted in the country.

In a chance interview with a select group of reporters at the tail end of her visit last Tuesday, Duterte said that she had a “productive day” where she was shown the different branches of Seameo in Malaysia, as well as the chance to visit an early-childhood vocational college in Kuala Lumpur.

Seameo Centers in Malaysia include the Regional Centre for Special Educational Needs (Seameo SEN), Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (Seameo Rescam) and the Tropical Medicine (Tropmed), Regional Centre for Microbiology, Parasitology and Entonomy.

“We are thanking the Malaysian government for their support to the Seameo and the country’s presidency. It was a productive day where we were shown the Seameo Tropmed showcase and what we have learned from an early childhood development course from a vocational college here,” Duterte said.

Duterte said she believes that early childhood education is important and understands that the government should focus on it, especially for children ages zero to four.

She said she would bring up the proposal of having a specialized school for early childhood education in the Early Childhood Development Council, which is chaired by the Department of Education.

Duterte also met with the Filipino community in Malaysia and said that most of them had “happy stories” to share with her during her meeting with them.

She shared the message of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the government continues to take care of their welfare despite being far away from their families.

Duterte did not avoid commenting on issues at home and said that she does not intend to file cases against alleged Duterte Death Squad (DDS) hitman Arturo Lascanas, who tagged her as one of the masterminds of Oplan Tokhang during the controversial war on drugs during the administration of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.

She has also not discussed with her father the possibility of the issuance of a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court, noting that the former leader has access to a lot of lawyers and understands the legal implications of the case.

Duterte also refused to comment on the call by the “Young Guns” bloc at the House of Representatives to convince her family to talk to Marcos.