Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Assures To Work Around Whatever Budget for OVP
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President spoke her side on the decision of the House to give the Office of the Vice President (OVP) a P733 million budget.
The budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2025 is controversial. During its deliberation at the Senate and the House of Representatives, Vice Pres. Duterte got involved in heated arguments with the House and Senate members.
During the Senate deliberation, Duterte accused Senator Risa Hontiveros of politicizing after the lawmaker asked about her book, Isang Kaibigan. In its 2025 budget proposal, P10 million is allotted for the distribution of the book authored by Duterte.
At the deliberation of the House of Representative, the Vice President had a spar with some House members which caused the deliberation to be moved to another schedule. However, instead of attending the resumption of the House deliberation, the Vice President just sent a letter saying she is leaving the decision to the House members.
According to the Vice President, she has laid down her stand on the issues surrounding the 2025 budget proposal of her office. There were other House hearings that were also skipped by the Vice President.
Following her absence on the hearings set to discuss the OVP budget proposal, talks that Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office may be defunded crossed the surface. Senate President Chiz Escudero previously confirmed that the Congress has the power to defund an office. Meanwhile, in the recent years, the Congress has not given any office a zero budget.
Recently, the House approved a P733 million budget for the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. It is P1.2 billion lower compared to the P2 billion that the OVP was seeking for.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte reacted to the P733 million budget for her office. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, the Vice President assured that the OVP will continue to work regardless of how much the office will be given as budget for 2025.
“Sa P700 million, we will see kung ano ‘yung naiwan and then we will work around that budget of the Office of the Vice President. Pero definitely, tuloy pa rin ang trabaho anuman ang budget,” Duterte said.
According to Vice Pres. Duterte, she will attend the plenary session in the Senate but she is not anymore expecting of changes on the budget. Based on the report, she raised her accusation again that only Ako Bicol party-list Representative Zaldy Co and House Speaker Martin Romualdez allegedly have control on the budget.