Vice President Sara Duterte confirmed Thursday that she would spend her Christmas holiday in Davao City.
In a television interview, Duterte said she plans to spend time with her family in her hometown.
“Yes, we will do that with my children and my family, and my mother as well,” she said.
However, she noted that their team is still waiting for the schedule of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to finalize plans for the Department of Education (DepEd) visitation.
“In fact, totoong plano talaga namin is that I move in early. Inaantay lang namin makita kung ano po ‘yung schedule ni Pangulong (Our original plan was to move early, we are just waiting for the schedule of President) Marcos, so that we can do our rounds dito sa (here in) Mindanao for Department of Education, kasi kailangan din kausapin ‘yung regional offices namin (because we need to talk to our regional offices),” she said.
Addressing top-down disconnection
Duterte explained the importance of personally visiting schools in the region to come up with an on-the-ground assessment.
She said she has noticed a “disconnection” between the central office, where orders are coming from, and the regional offices, down to schools.
“Na-notice ko na there’s quite a disconnect between sa central office and dun sa field operations namin. Something that we did for the Department of Education, binaba ko ‘yung Usecs (undersecretaries)], Asecs (assistant secretaries) namin, binaba ko sila doon sa regions, (I brought them on-the-ground, down to the regions),” she said.
Duterte pertained to DepEd’s officials meeting with regional and school division heads to discuss on-the-ground challenges, particularly those in Leyte and Samar, during her first three months in office.
“Doon ko na-notice na marami talaga silang problema doon na sometimes hindi nagkakaintindihan, miscommunication, misunderstanding, lahat ng mis-, nandun sa school (That’s when I noticed there are a lot of problems. Sometimes lack of understanding, miscommunication, misunderstanding, all of the mis-, there in school). Who bears the brunt of trabaho (work), the teacher,” she said.
Duterte noted that despite these lapses in operational communication, their experimental move brought a positive outcome.
“The feedback was, it was very successful, dahil nakapag-ventilate, nakapagsalita ang mga divisions, and hindi nagiging defensive ang regional offices namin kasi nandun kami para makinig, hindi para magalit or mag-utos (because they were able to vent, the divisions were able to speak out, and our regional offices did not become defensive because we were there to listen and not to get mad at them or to order them),” she said.
Besides this improved way of coordination between the central, regional, division, and school offices, the education chief also said her teams are maximizing the feedback posted online on her accounts used for both DepEd and the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
“We use the power of social media to present kung ano ‘yung ginagawa namin sa mga opisina namin, ano ‘yung trabaho ko, and to get feedback. Sa mga comments ng mga tao, sa mga feedback, meron talagang magagandang mga ideas and suggestions galing sa citizenry (what we are doing in our office, what my job is. In the comments of people, in feedback, there are some good ideas and suggestion from the citizenry),” she said.
As of now, Duterte’s official Facebook page is followed by more than two million Facebook users, more than 765,000 Instagram followers, and about 188,000 followers on Twitter. (PNA)
