There is no love lost between Vice President Sara Duterte and the Makabayan bloc as the word war continues to rage
between the two parties on Monday, Aug. 1.
Duterte poked fun at how most of the Makabayan party-list groups lost in the May 2022 polls, which supposedly showed the Filipinos’ rejection of the solons “love affair” with communist insurgencies.
The Vice President said she always has time for Makabayan bloc because she liked laughing at their failed attempt to infiltrate the House of Representatives.
“The laugh that I get reading Makabayan bloc’s hypocritical and dramatically rehashed statements — while thinking about how the Filipino people rejected the bid of Bayan Muna and two other Makabayan bloc partylist groups to once again infiltrate Congress and legitimize their existence while pretending that we do no know about their ‘love affair’ with the NPA (New People’s Army), the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) and the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) — is a way to de-stress from all the challenges the Department of Education (DepEd) and the government need to address without the help of Makabayan bloc, of course,” she said in a statement.
Kabataan, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela got one seat each after Bayan Muna and Anakpawis failed to muster enough votes in the May 2022 party-list race. From six seats in the previous 18th Congress, they only have three seats for the 19th Congress.
This came after the Makabayan bloc issued a statement questioning Duterte for having time to criticize them when she should be busy preparing for the planned resumption of face-to-face classes in the country.
Duterte is also the secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).
“We hope VP Duterte will devote more time fleshing out her supposed advocacy in support of IPs instead of red-tagging Makabayan bloc and engaging in all sorts of fallacious rejoinders,” the statement read.
READ: VP Sara, Makabayan bloc trade barbs over SONA garb
The coalition challenged her supposed advocacy for indigenous people’s (IP) rights and the Lumad community in southern Mindanao, saying that the bloc’s criticism of her traditional Bagobo outfit during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) should not have made her “go on lengths explaining her advocacy, insulting the grief of a mother and maligning real advocates of the Lumad".
Former Bayan Muna Rep. Eufamia Cullamat earlier questioned Duterte’s use of traditional attire when she hada red-tagged Lumad teachers and students and shut down Lumad schools in the past.
But the Vice President pledged that it is time to put an end to Makabayan bloc making a fool out of them in public.
“Marami na ang naloko ng Makabayan bloc. Magaling sila sa propaganda at sanay sila sa pagsisinungaling (Many have been fooled by the Makabayan bloc. They are good at propanda and used to lies),” Duterte said.
“Sa loob ng maraming panahon, walang naglakas-loob na ilabas ang katotohanan tungkol sa kanila. Gagawin natin ito ngayon (In so many years, no one dared to reveal the truth about them. We will do it now),” she added.
Duterte alleged that the bloc had been successful in recruiting many young Filipinos to join the NPA and raise arms for a war against their fellow Filipinos.
Revealing the truth about the Makabayan bloc and the “terrorist” groups NPA, CPP, and NDFP is neither red-tagging nor terror-tagging, the Vice President insisted.