DAVAO CITY – Vice President-elect Sara Duterte, who will serve as Secretary of Education, highlighted the challenges confronting the Filipino children and called for unity to overcome the challenges in the days ahead.
In her speech delivered during her inauguration as the country’s 15th Vice President at the San Pedro Square here, Duterte acknowledged that the children are faced with a complex future filled with conflict and uncertainties.
She said some of these challenges include the winding cycle of poverty, the trauma of broken families, the life-long baggage because of irresponsible and bad parenting, the abandonment issues due to an absentee parent, the anguish of gender confusion and discrimination, the destruction brought about by drugs, and the lure of easy money in criminality.
Duterte also mentioned among the pressing issues involving the minors such as the increasing cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases among minors, and the failure to identify and speak up against different kinds of abuses, the life altering effects of teenage pregnancy, the detrimental effects of illiteracy, the emotional injury of bullying, unstable mental wellness, recruitment to support terrorism, and misinformation in the internet.
Duterte said the parents have a duty to teach their children the “values of integrity, discipline, respect, and compassion for others,” emphasizing that a strong, loving, happy family sets down all the basic foundations essential in the development and growth of a child.
She said that education begins at home and that the Filipino families should not allow their children’s future to be squandered.
“Atong isilsil sa ilang alimpatakan nga ang maayong pamatasan, ang edukasyon, ug pagpaningkamot maoy magdala kanila palayo sa kinabuhi nga puno og kalisod, padulong sa maayong kinabuhi nga ilang gihandom (We should inculcate in their minds that good values, education, and hard work are the ones that will keep them away from a life filled with difficulties, and will lead them instead to a good life that they all to have),” she said.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando administered the oath taking of Duterte as 15th Vice President at 5:13 p.m. at the San Pedro Street on Sunday.
She was joined on the stage by her parents, outgoing President Rodrigo R. Duterte and Elizabeth Zimmerman, as she took her oath.
Also present during the event were Sara’s husband Atty. Manases Carpio and their children Mikhaila María, nicknamed ‘Sharky,’ and two sons, Mateo Lucas, nicknamed ‘Stingray,’ and Marko Digong, nicknamed ‘Stonefish.’
There are a total of 15 vice presidents as against 17 presidents in the history of the Philippines. No vice presidents were elected in the country during Japanese occupation and under the 1973 Philippine Constitution.
The program was preceded by an hour-long thanksgiving mass celebrated at the San Pedro Cathedral by Archbishop Romulo Valles.