Cheap but clean hotels are okay, Robredo tells Senate
Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
Staying in cheap hotels when traveling, as long as they are clean, is not a problem with Vice President Leni Robredo given the smaller travel budget that her office is proposing for 2017.
From this year’s P500 million budget, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) is seeking P428.367 million for 2017 — lower by P71.633 million or 14.48 percent.
Robredo said the dramatic decrease was because of the OVP’s transfer of office from the Coconut Palace to the Quezon City Reception House.
READ: Frugal VP presents lower budget for 2017
“Now, were paying at least P200,000 a month when we transferred from the Coconut Palace to the Quezon City Reception House so that would take out a big chunk from our budget,” she told the Senate committee on finance on Wednesday.
“Because of the transfer, it will dramatically decrease our utilities, electricity, water, etc,” she said.
Robredo said the OVP’s travel expenses would also be slashed by 38 percent — from this year’s P59.740 million to P37.270 million.
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Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the committee, then asked Robredo if the cut on the travel expense could affect her mobility.
“Not really, Madam chair. We’ve agreed already that when I travel on provincial trips, we’d be traveling with a very lean staff,” Robredo said.
“And I instructed the office also that we won’t occupy the best hotels. I just told them that my requirement is that the hotel is clean. Wherever the staff will stay, that’s where I will stay so there’s really no need for a very big travel budget,” she added.
“So in short, the OVP can live with it?” Legarda asked again, to which the Vice President answered yes.
The lower budget proposal includes a P10-million capital outlay.
Robredo said P6.8 million would be for new information and communications equipment, including upgrade for some, and P3.3 million for new vehicles to replace current ones which “have reached the end of their estimated useful life.”
“The motor vehicles which were transferred to us, most of them, can’t be used anymore, also the computers. So most of these are just upgrading of the basic necessities,” the Vice President said.
