September 10, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — She was not being a “spoiled brat” when she took a hostile approach to lawmakers’ questions during deliberations on the Office of the Vice President (OVP)’s proposed P2.037-billion funding for 2025, according to Vice President Sara Duterte.
Stressing that her stonewalling of the OVP’s budget hearing was her response to what she anticipated as a political sideshow for lawmakers to “attack” her, Duterte said her critics misunderstood her behavior during the deliberations.
In her appearances at the budget hearings before the Senate and the House of Representatives, Duterte turned hostile when questioned about how the OVP had spent its funds in the previous years.
Lawmakers and critics found her demeanor “disrespectful” to the basic principles of check and balance enshrined in the Constitution.
“I’ve been accustomed to answer questions, that’s why I give chance interviews to the media. The public knows I’m not a ‘bratinella’ or a spoiled brat… I suppose some members of the House of Representatives just aren’t accustomed to not getting what they want and the answers they want to hear,” Duterte said in an interview taped last week and distributed by the OVP yesterday.
“Our representatives are not accustomed to people retaliating against their verbal attacks. So I think the ‘spoiled brat’ rhetoric is part of their attack that goes: ‘Oh, she’s a brat,’ even if I answered their questions. They probably just didn’t like my answers,” she added.
Citing audit reports that flagged irregularities and mismanaged funds, lawmakers at the House voiced their concerns about how Duterte’s offices spent their resources for government services.
Among the top concerns were the P73 million of the P125-million OVP confidential funds that the Commission on Audit flagged in 2022.
Duterte has never kept secret her contempt of the House of Representatives, the epicenter of her rift with the Marcos family and their allies.
The Vice President, however, said she still acknowledges Congress’ power of the purse.
“That’s why we have budget hearings… We acknowledge that power that’s why we went to the Senate and House of Representatives hearings to present our budget (proposal). What I did (during those deliberations) was to forgo the question and answer part of the budget hearing… and just leave it up to Congress to decide what they will do for the OVP,” she said.
Duterte also asked the public not to “misconstrue” her demeanor during the deliberations, saying she had nothing to hide.
“It’s very important to me for the public to know about the OVP budget proposal. That’s why before we went to the Senate and the House, we published the budget proposal on our website, social media platforms and made it easy to understand for the public as to how the budget of the OVP will be spent,” she said.
‘Prove us wrong’
House officials yesterday challenged Duterte to prove them wrong that she is not a “spoiled brat” by respecting lawmakers who have the mandate to scrutinize her office’s proposed P2-billion budget for 2025.
House Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre, Assistant Majority Leader Amparo Maria Zamora and Assistant Majority Leader Jil Bongalon advised the second highest elected official of the land to change her abrasive attitude when she attends today’s budget hearing.
“If she claims not to be a ‘spoiled brat,’ she must prove it by respecting the process and providing the answers we need to evaluate her office’s budget,” Acidre, who represents Tingog party-list, said.
“Why is she making the explanations outside Congress? The VP should make those statements before Congress. She should speak about the budget process in front of us, in the name of transparency and accountability because these public funds are taxpayers’ money. Face us here in Congress,” he added.
Zamora, who represents Taguig’s 2nd District, said: “It is our duty to ask tough questions, and it’s her duty as an elected official to respond thoroughly and with clarity.”
“Dismissing our queries as mere patutsada undermines the process and the institution we are all part of. We ask for professionalism,” she added.
Bongalon echoed the same concerns raised by his “Young Guns” colleagues.
The Ako Bicol party-list representative urged the Vice President to stop framing the hearing as a personal attack and instead recognize it as part of her responsibility as the country’s second-highest official. — Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Sheila Crisostomo
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