VP Duterte office’s P2.3 billion 2023 budget gets Senate nod

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MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) P2.3-billion budget for 2023 secured the Senate’s nod on Monday.

The budget of the OVP, led by Vice President Sara Duterte, contains P500 million in confidential funds that the opposition groups in Congress deem unworthy.

“The budget of the Office of the Vice President is submitted,” Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda said during the Senate plenary session as no one objected.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III was the only senator to voice his concerns about the OVP’s budget.

Pimentel questioned the confidential funds and said that he will ask for its deletion “at the proper time.”

Senator Sonny Angara, the chairperson of the Senate committee on finance, sponsored the OVP’s budget.

Meanwhile, the 2023 budgets of three departments were likewise approved by the upper chamber.

The following are the departments and their attached agencies’ budgets:

• Department of Education – P678.1 billion
• Department of Social Welfare and Development – P210.6 billion
• Department of Foreign Affairs – P20.3 billion

The Commission on Elections’ budget for next year, amounting to P6.49 billion, was also greenlighted by the Senate.

JPV/abc