September 9, 2024 | 2:19pm
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday, September 9, defended her stonewalling of the the House appropriations committee’s budget deliberations for the Office of the Vice President, arguing that lawmakers who faced her were simply not used to “tough responses.”
In a video sent to the media, Duterte said she wanted to forego the question-and-answer portion of the OVP’s budget hearing on August 27 because “certain lawmakers” were using the opportunity to launch political attacks against her – an accusation the vice president has repeatedly flung at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
A day before the House appropriations panel resumes the budget hearing for her office, OVP staff sent the media a video interview of Duterte where she justified her refusal to answer key questions about the OVP’s expenditures and proposed 2025 budget. The OVP said the interview was conducted on September 4 but “no further details” were given on the identity of the person interviewing Duterte.
In the interview, Duterte bristled at being tagged a “spoiled brat” and insisted that her attendance in the budget hearings was proof that she was not avoiding accountability over how she spends public funds.
Duterte’s statements in the video are the first time she has directly addressed her conduct in the controversial August 27 hearing at the House, clips of which have widely circulated on social media.
“I am used to that, and the public knows that I am not a ‘bratinella’ or spoiled brat because they have known me since I was in Davao, from when I was mayor until I became Vice President,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino. “The public knows that I do not abuse my power and authority in all the offices I have held. The entire nation is my witness that I am not a spoiled brat.”
Duterte said that her testy exchange with lawmakers on August 27 — the first time that the House appropriations panel deferred Duterte’s budget and kept it from reaching plenary — was caused by lawmakers “not getting the answers they want to hear.”
“They are also not used to being answered back in their own critiques. So I believe this is also a kind of attack, like: ‘Oh, that’s a spoiled brat,’ even though I did answer them. It just wasn’t what they wanted,” Duterte said.
The vice president had repeatedly asked to skip the question-and-answer portion during the August 27 hearing, repeating her templated response even to questions unrelated to the OVP’s confidential and intelligence funds in 2022 and 2023.
It was also a visibly frustrated Duterte who also attempted to break protocol and replace Rep. Stella Quimbo (Marikina City), House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson, as the presiding officer of the budget briefing mid-hearing.
This was after Quimbo had allowed lawmakers like Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) to ask questions related to the OVP’s confidential expenditures, particularly the Commission on Audit’s disallowance of P73 million worth of confidential funds that Duterte spent in 2022. Duterte refused to confirm or answer questions related to her office’s spending habits and had instead fired back at Castro by describing her as a “person convicted of child abuse.”
Duterte insisted that she understands Congress’ constitutional mandate of scrutinizing agencies’ budgets. “We recognize that, which is why we attended the Senate hearing. We also went to the House of Representatives hearing because we presented the budget. All I did was say that we would forego the question-and-answer part of the budget hearing,” she said.
Besides the alleged political attacks she anticipated from lawmakers, Duterte said she also wanted to forego the period of interpellation because the “budget of the government is just controlled by two people.” She did not say who.
Makabayan bloc lawmakers, including Castro, moved to subpoena the COA on August 13 so it would submit its audit findings of the OVP and DepEd’s confidential and intelligence expenses from 2022-2023 to the powerful House appropriations committee.
It was this document that House lawmakers sought Duterte’s clarification on during the August 27 hearing as state auditors found nearly 60% of the OVP’s P125-million confidential fund in 2022 was improperly spent. The COA’s notice of disallowance also included an order for the OVP to return the P73 million.
Before she publicly feuded with House leaders earlier this year, the vice president enjoyed the privilege of having the OVP budget passed within minutes during her first two years in office.
On September 4, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a chance interview that the budget hearings for the OVP are not a form of politicking as these are “essentially an information-gathering exercise” for lawmakers. “It has nothing to do with politics,” he said.
Impeachment
On August 30, three days after the controversial OVP budget hearing, Castro said Duterte committed an “impeachable offense” and could be held liable for the COA’s notice of disallowance.
House leaders earlier denied Duterte’s allegation that an impeachment case is now being “openly” discussed in the chamber.
Sen. Imee Marcos on Monday came to Duterte’s defense and called out “those in Congress” who are planning to file an impeachment case against the vice president, saying they would face the wrath of the 32 million who voted for her.
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