Sara qualified to be DepEd chief – spokesperson

Presumptive vice president Sara Duterte-Carpio “possesses vast executive experience” to be the next head of the Department of Education (DepEd), her spokesperson, Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco maintained as opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros raised concerns over Duterte-Carpio taking the helm of the education sector.

“Vice president-elect Sara Duterte possesses vast executive experience and keen knowledge of the challenges faced by schools, students and parents, having been chairperson of the Local School Board for many years,” Frasco said in a press statement posted on her Facebook account last Friday night.

She made the statement as Hontiveros, in an interview with ANC’s “Rundown,” said the next education secretary must be an education expert, as the agency faces a great task of fighting historical revisionism and addressing the educational crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t know what the incoming, the presumptive vice president’s track record is in education.

I would have guessed other education experts to helm that important department,” Hontiveros said.

Last Wednesday, presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced that he is choosing his running mate, Duterte-Carpio, to be the next secretary of DepEd, a position which the latter accepted despite her earlier intent to be the next defense secretary.

“Beyond theoretical ideas of managing the education sector, which seems to be the extent of Sen. Hontiveros’ preferred qualifications for DepEd secretary, VP-elect Sara will certainly bring to the DepEd actual performance and solutionoriented leadership necessary to uplift the quality of education in our country,” Frasco said.

In an online thanksgiving event for her supporters last Friday, Carpio vowed to push for reforms in the education sector, saying that the government needs to develop a new generation of “disciplined and patriotic” Filipino youths who have the mindset of reaching their “full potentials as individuals” and help the government in “forging and fortifying peace and progress in our country.”