Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

Senior Deputy Speaker Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. is anything  but surprised with Vice President Sara Duterte's huge drop in ratings as per the latest Pulse Asia Survey. 

“Hindi natin ikinakagulat ang patuloy na pagbaba ng ratings ni VP Duterte, lalo na’t hindi siya nagbibigay ng paliwanag ukol sa paggamit ng pondo ng OVP at DepEd. Pera ng bayan ang pinag-uusapan dito, kaya’t obligasyon niyang ipaliwanag ang mga kinukuwestiyong hindi tamang paggugol ng pondo,” Gonzales said in a statement Thursday, Oct. 3. 

(We weren't surprised by the continued plunge in VP Duterte's ratings, especially since she hasn't been explaining the fund usage of the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education. We're talking about public funds here, so it's her obligation to explain the alleged misuse of funds.) 

"People expect public officials to be transparent in the use of government funds. Kaya hindi nakapagtataka na bumabagsak ang kanyang ratings dahil sa kanyang patuloy na pag-iwas sa mga tanong tungkol sa pondong ito," Gonzales added. 

(Her continued avoidance of questions about these funds makes her ratings drop unsurprising.) 

The Manila Bulletin (MB) tried to get Vice President Duterte’s reaction, but a personnel at the OVP said she was not inclined to reply to Gonzales' assertions. 

From 83 percent in March 2023, the lady official's trust rating dropped 22 percentage points to 61 percent in the September 2024 Pulse Asia survey. 

More recent Pulse Asia survey results showed that Vice President Duterte also recorded a nine-point decrease in approval ratings, from 69 percent in June to 60 percent in September 2024. 

Her trust rating also dropped by 10 percentage points from 71 percent to 61 percent over the same period. 

It can be recalled that the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the OVP on the use of its P125-million confidential fund in December 2022. Since the OVP still could not explain the spending, it issued a Notice of Disallowance (ND). 

In the first three quarters of 2023, the COA also flagged the spending of P164 million of the P375 million confidential fund of Vice President Duterte, based on the released audit observation memorandum (AOM).