September 10, 2024 | 11:48am
MANILA, Philippines — Neither Vice President Sara Duterte nor any representative from her office showed up at the House’s second round of budget hearing on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) proposed 2025 budget on Tuesday, September 10.
The OVP staff told reporters at 10:23 a.m., Tuesday, that the agency will not be attending the Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on their proposed P2.037 billion budget for 2025. The committee previously deferred the OVP’s 2025 budget hearing on August 27 due to Duterte’s unwillingness to directly answer lawmakers’ questions. This was sparked by the Commission on Audit’s (COA) report of the office’s insufficient spending of P125-million confidential fund.
“The OVP would like to inform the public that it will not be attending the Committee on Appropriations hearing on the proposed OVP Budget for FY 2025 scheduled for today,” the statement read.
Duterte maintained her position to “forego the opportunity to defend the budget,” submitting a letter to the House speaker Martin Romualdez stating that she will “defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee” on the OVP’s 2025 budget.
She added that her office has already presented the plans and projects of the OVP for 2025 and submitted the necessary documents to the House appropriations panel.
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Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (SAGIP Party-list), therefore, moved to terminate the OVP’s budget hearing. He said that for the nearly two decades he has served in government, the two highest positions — the Office of the President and OVP — have been given parliamentary courtesy as part of the Congress’ “long-standing tradition”
“Is this committee authorized to set aside or discard that tradition,” Marcoleta asked.
Rep. Stella Quimbo (Marikina, 2nd District), the vice chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations, said that “the will of the majority is always respected.”
In a manifestation, Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women’s Party) reminded the committee that House members were able to question the OVP’s budget during former vice president Leni Robredo’s term.
“So, the issue of tradition is not cast in stone. We also have such precedents,” Brosas said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The motion was quashed after the majority, or 45 of the House members present, voted against it. Only three lawmakers voted in favor.
The House continued their interpellation on the OVP’s budget for 2025, questioning only resource persons from the COA and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
“Continuing with the proceedings does not mean that this is an acceptable situation. What we are saying is that we should take advantage of our very hard-working members of COA and DBM. This is an opportunity to uncover what we do not know about the OVP’s budget,” Quimbo said in a mix of English and Filipino.
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