A hidden agenda?

Vice president-elect Sara Duterte Carpio has accepted the offer to head the Department of Education when she starts her term.

The situation of our educational system is nothing to trifle with. Even before the pandemic lockdowns our students became famous or --rather infamous-- for scoring low in reading and mathematics. Even lower than some nations in worse financial condition than we are in.

We are sure Sara has her talents being a lawyer, mayor, and even an Army reservist. But perhaps someone with an actual education background and with years of experience on how our educational system works may be better suited to the position.

The fact that it was president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who made the offer for her to lead DepEd has also raised some suspicions that Bongbong has a vested interest in doing so.

Even before the campaign, the Marcos camp busied itself denying the atrocities attributed to the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Bongbong’s dad. They even went to the extent of offering up an alternative narrative that painted the Marcos years as the “golden age” of Philippine history.

It can even be said that belief in this false narrative may have been one of the influences that led 30 million people to vote for Bongbong last May 9.

Now tongues can’t help but wag; is Bongbong placing Sara as head of DepEd to further help change the narrative or even perhaps completely erase the bad things his dad did from our textbooks? Surely, the DepEd secretary would have a clear and powerful say about what can and cannot be written in the books our children take to school.

Of course, Bongbong may be offering the post to Sara out of completely different reasons unknown to us. Also, her mind may yet change about this. And because she hasn’t really started yet, who knows? She might actually make a good DepEd secretary after all.

But if Bongbong were to make more inroads into fielding the narrative that he wants established and taught, DepEd is where he would likely start, and what better than an ally in control?