September 18, 2024 | 3:05pm
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte once again declined to answer questions about her office’s budget utilization at a House inquiry on a privilege speech about her office’s alleged fund misuse on Wednesday, September 18.
The House of Representatives’ Good Governance and Public Accountability Committee conducted a hearing to deliberate on the budget use of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), where they invited Duterte to explain state auditors’ findings on her agency’s spending of confidential funds.
While Duterte appeared at the hearing as a resource person, she refused to take oath promising that any statement she makes during the inquiry is true.
Why she refused. According to the rules sent to Duterte by the committee, only witnesses are required to testify under oath.
Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Pampanga, 2nd District) backed Duterte by mentioning that the Supreme Court differentiates a witness from a resource person or an accused.
Arroyo said that the “constitution provides that no person shall be compelled to be a witness against himself” even in legislative inquiries. She also insinuated that Duterte is being accused of “malversation of public funds.”
House lawmakers insisted, however, that resource person and witness are technical terms that carry the same meaning.
Rep. Keith Flores (Bukidnon, 2nd District) answered, saying that “no one is technically accused of any wrongdoing” in a legislative inquiry.
Another accusation
Duterte instead expressed to the committee that the hearing is merely a “well-funded political attack,” pointing to the privilege speeches delivered by Rep. Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd District) and Rep. Rolando Valeriano (Manila, 2nd District).
For Duterte, lawmakers who prompted the inquiry are only trying to tell people, “Do not vote for Sara in 2028.”
“May I just say that I take notice of the opening speeches and it was stated that there’s a determination of misfeasance, nonfeasance, and malfeasance and those are cases that should be properly taken in the courts of law,” Duterte said in her opening speech.
The vice president said that she would only respond to the alleged misuse of funds if a case is filed to the appropriate courts.
However, she also reiterated her previous statements that there is no misuse of funds. For any documents that state auditors will request from her, Duterte said the OVP “will gladly respond to them before the Commission on Audit (COA).”
COA issued a notice of disallowance to the OVP for P73 million confidential funds inappropriately spent.
The agency clarified in the hearing that the agency has 180 days from August 9 to either return the disallowed funds or appeal.
RELATED: COA disallows nearly 60% of VP Sara’s confidential expenditures in 2022
Before leaving the hearing, Duterte ended her speech with a verbose statement.
“So you may try to destroy me. You can skin me alive, burn me, and throw my ashes to the wind. But let it be known: You will find me unbowed,” she said.
What happened at the OVP budget hearings
In previous budget hearings of the OVP, Duterte repeatedly said that she will forgo the opportunity to defend her office’s budget after learning that there are House lawmakers allegedly conspiring to file an impeachment case against her.
She also reiterated that the OVP will manage even without a budget, should Congress decide to defund her office.
RELATED: Sara Duterte ‘ready’ for zero budget, but lawmaker denies plans to defund OVP
Representatives from COA and the Department of Budget and Management were also present at the hearing as resource persons.
These agencies were also questioned during the second budget hearing of the OVP on September 10 to clarify the notice of disallowance on confidential funds and other expenses improperly accounted for.
The House appropriations committee proposed on September 12 to slash the OVP’s budget by nearly two-thirds or 63.7% from the executive branch’s proposal of P2.026 billion.
Most of the cut comes from the agency’s social services program.
Plenary debates on the OVP’s budget for 2025 will be held on September 23.
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