Congress Decides on Budget of Office of VP Sara Duterte for 2025
SARA DUTERTE – The Congress has decided to give the Office of the Vice President P733 million as 2025 budget.
The Senate and House deliberations of the budget proposal of the Office of the Vice President has sparked a lot of headlines. The Vice Pres. Duterte was involved in heated arguments with the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In the Senate, Duterte had a clash with Senator Risa Hontiveros. The lawmaker noticed the similarity of the assistance programs of the OVP with those offered by the other government agencies. She expressed an intent to make a motion to re-allocate the said assistance services fund to relevant programs.
Sen. Hontiveros also asked Vice Pres. Duterte about her book — which the latter deemed as “politicizing”. According to the Senator, P10 million is allotted for the distribution of the book authored by Duterte herself.
In the House of Representatives, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also had a scuffle with some members of the House which caused the deliberation to be rescheduled. However, Duterte was no show at the resumption of the House deliberation of the OVP budget proposal.
The Office of the Vice President is requesting for a P2 billion budget for 2025. However, following the Vice President’s absence at the House hearing which could be an opportunity to defend the budget proposal of her office, there were talks that the OVP may be defunded.
Several members of the House of Representatives were disappointed by the actions of the Vice President. It even earned her a “bratinella to the max” tag from ACT Teachers Party-List Representative France Castro.
Recently, the Congress has decided on the budget to be given to the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte for 2025. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, from the P2 million budget proposal of Duterte’s office, the Congress has decided to give the OVP a P733 million budget.
The P733 million for the OVP is included in the P6.352 trillion national budget proposed by the government for 2025 and was approved. Based on the report, President Bongbong Marcos certified the passing of the 2025 budget as urgent thus, the Congress was able to approve the proposed budget in its 2nd and 3rd reading within a day.
During the third reading of the proposed 2025 national budget under the House Bill No. 10800, 285 members of the Congress voted in favor of the budget while three (3) opposed to it.
Previously, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said that the members of the House will decide on the OVP fund for 2025 after Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not attend the hearing to defend and explain why her proposed budget must not be reduced.
Duterte previously sent a letter to the House saying that her office is leaving the decision to the House with regards to the budget. Duterte also previously said that the OVP is ready to work even without a budget.