Sara Duterte —SENATE PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Monday called on his colleagues to delete the proposed P500 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP), as the agency, as defined by Congress, is not entitled to receive such funding.
In his interpellation of the OVP budget, Pimentel said Congress should instead rechannel the funds for more important programs and allow agencies to perform their mandate.
He questioned why the Senate committee report retained the P2.3 billion funding for Vice President Sara Duterte, which “ballooned” from the P709 million originally proposed by the agency.
“In due time, I will move for the deletion of the budget item of P500 million for the OVP. It is my position that the OVP is not entitled to confidential funds, going by the definition that we in Congress crafted,” he said.
The Senate finance committee approved the referral of its committee report on the budget of the OVP supposedly without any change from the previously proposed P2.3 billion.
Budget almost triple
Pimentel noted that in the budget briefing, Duterte did not try to justify the proposed P500 million confidential fund for her office, contrasted to how the Office of the President stood firm on their justification of the P4.5-billion confidential and intelligence funds.
Citing the OVP’s proposals, Pimentel expressed concern that the agency may already be duplicating other programs already performed by other agencies.
“So that will explain the budget will almost triple from current amounts because of these programs that the OVP seeks to undertake,” he said.
Aquilino Pimentel III
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, for her part, disclosed that the Senate finance panel has added nearly P1 billion to the 2023 budget of the Department of Education (DepEd), as she insisted that the Education Secretary and Vice President’s request for P150 million in confidential funds was not justified.
Hontiveros appealed to her colleagues to just siphon off the confidential funds to other concerns, such as the education programs for indigenous people and students with special needs.
No compelling reasons
Netizens earlier blasted the government after the DepEd’s proposed outlay of P532 million for the special education was not included in the National Expenditure Program for next year.
“I hope our colleagues in the Senate will share the view that there are no extraordinarily compelling reasons to provide a confidential fund to the education agency,” Hontiveros said.
While she was supportive of the DepEd’s efforts to provide quality basic education, the senator said education officials should be more prudent in utilizing taxpayer money allocated for Filipino learners.
“These confidential funds will be better spent for the important needs of the young students,” Hontiveros added.
She lauded her colleagues, particularly Sen. Pia Cayetano, for introducing amendments that increased the DepEd’s outlay by P912 million.