Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Claims House Lawmakers Have Script
SARA DUTERTE – Philippines’ House Appropriations Committee chairman Elizaldy Co called the Vice President “peke” and “budol”.
Vice Pres. Duterte had heated arguments with the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives during the deliberation of the 2025 budget proposal of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
At the Senate deliberation, Vice Pres. Duterte and Senator Risa Hontiveros exchanged strong statements that don’t like each other’s behavior after the lawmaker asked about the P10 million budget allotted for the distribution of the Duterte-authored book.
Sen. Hontiveros also noticed that the assistance programs of the OVP are similar with the assistance programs of the other government agencies. At the deliberation, she stressed that she will make a motion to re-allocate the said budget to the relevant agencies.
At the deliberation at the House of Representatives, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also had a spar with ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro. The deliberation was moved but the Vice President was no show at the resumption of the deliberation.
In an interview released by the Office of the Vice President, Vice Pres. Duterte accused the lawmakers of allegedly having a script. According to her, the lawmakers allegedly already know what to do before they went to the plenary.
Duterte also claimed that the lawmakers had prepared answers to her responses to the report of the Commission on Audit (COA). According to her, they allegedly sticked to the plan to attack her.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, PH House Appropriations Committee chairman Elizaldy Co was quick to react to the claim of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte that the lawmakers’ questioning are scripted. According to him, the Vice President is the one with scripted answers.
“Siya po ang scripted. Siya po ang budol, peke po. Nakita niyo naman may binabasa siya…” Co said.
The PH House Appropriations Committee Chairman also claimed that the Vice President studied her answers and she has lawyers who sided with her “shimenet, shimenet”.
Recently, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte stressed that the OVP can work even without a budget. She claimed that she heard that the OVP may allegedly be defunded in 2025 or just given P1 budget.