Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Personally Appears at Senate for Budget Deliberation of OVP’s Proposed Fund
SARA DUTERTE – The Senate swiftly approved the proposed P889-million budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2026.
For 2026, the office of Vice Pres. Duterte did not request for confidential funds. Out of the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP), the OVP asked for a little over P902 million. The non-request of any confidential and intelligence funds came amid the Vice President still being surrounded by questions over the CFs of the offices she held.
Vice Pres. Duterte remains questioned by the alleged misuse of the P625 million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education. She was the first DepEd secretary under the tenure of Pres. Bongbong Marcos but she resigned in 2024.
In September, the Senate swiftly approved the P902.9 million proposed budget of the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte for 2026. The approval then came after Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri made the motion to extend parliamentary courtesy to the OVP.
According to Zubiri, the proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President was allegedly “lean and mean” already. Several senators agreed on the motion of the Senate Majority Leader and Sen. Bato dela Rosa immediately seconded the motion.
Recently, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte personally appeared at the Senate again for the deliberation of the proposed budget of her office. Based on a report on GMA News, the Senate finance committee earlier suggested the increasing of the proposed budget of the OVP for next year from P733.198 million under the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved by the House of Representatives to P889.236 million.
During the plenary session, the Senate approved the P889 million proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President in less than five minutes. Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito immediately moved to terminate the deliberations.
Senate President Tito Sotto approved Ejercito’s motion after no senator made an objection. Based on the report, Minority Sen. Robin Padilla thanked the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian and their fellow senators for increasing the budget of the Office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte.
“Sa akin pong karanasan, sa tuwing may dadating na kalamidad, kalungkutan, kamatayan, naandyan po lagi ang ating Pangalawang Pangulo upang makiramay, tumulong. Kahit saan pong lupalop sa Pilipinas, makikita po natin ang opisina ng ating Pangalawang Pangulo at siya mismo ay pumupunta sa mga lugar na hindi pa po naabot ng kahit na sinong naging public official,” Padilla expressed.
The Vice President also expressed her gratitude to the upper chamber for the swift approval of the proposed budget of her office. Recently, amid the massive corruption issues in the government, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte claimed she’s ready to be president if Pres. Bongbong Marcos resigns and it earned a reaction from the Palace.