EDITORIAL — She can help more people with that ?10 million

What started out as a budget deliberation of the funds being asked for by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) became a heated exchange between Senator Risa Hontiveros and Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio after Carpio suddenly accused the senator of politicizing.

Hontiveros was simply asking what Carpio’s children’s book “Isang Kaibigan” was about, the same book she asked for ?10 million to publish. But instead of answering the question, Carpio instead said she saw where this was going and decided to go in another direction entirely.

“This is an example of politicizing the budget hearing through the questions of a senator. Her problem is, my name is listed in the book. And we will be giving that book to the children. And those children have parents who will be voting. And my name will be spread wherever the book is given,” she concluded instead of just answering the question.

We cannot help but ask a few questions in relation to the book and her behavior.

First: Why was Carpio so defensive? Hontiveros never said she found anything anomalous with the books; she merely asked what it was about. But Carpio perhaps thought she was being led somewhere and didn’t like where it was going.

Second: Why only publish these books now? These are supposedly for children to encourage them to get into reading. But this was something she could have done as Department of Education secretary? Why is she only interested in getting children to read now that she is out of DepEd?

It also has to be mentioned that this book reeks of a vanity project. She gets an entire page to herself in the book introducing her as a “true friend”. What’s more, she already hinted that her next children’s book will be about betrayal. There are those of us who cannot help but get Uniteam breakup vibes from this planned project, and that Carpio isn’t really writing to get children reading but just wants to promote herself.

Third: Wouldn’t that ?10 million be better off used somewhere else? Surely there are other projects that the OVP can help out with that much money.

Her reasoning that her office needs funds to help people is actually very valid. And certainly she can help more people with that ?10 million.