Office of the Vice President logo and Vice President Sara Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate committee on finance on Monday approved the proposed P2.3 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2024.
The requested P2.3 billion budget of Duterte’s office included a whopping P500 million allocation for confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), which the Senate committee retained.
Vice President Sara Duterte attended the Senate panel’s public hearing with other OVP officials, namely, Chief of Staff Atty. Zuluieka Lopez, Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio, Director for Administrative and Financial Services Rosalynne Sanchez, Director for Operations Norman Baloro, spokesperson Atty. Reynold Munsayac, Legal Affairs Division head Atty. Emily Rose Torrentira, and Budget Division chief Kelvin Gerome Teñido.
READ: Sara Duterte seeks P2.3B OVP budget for 2024, including P500M intel fund
Last week, OVP’s 2024 budget proposal breezed through at the House of Representatives.
READ: House panel terminates OVP budget deliberations in less than 7 minutes
Committee members on appropriations opted to skip scrutiny of the OVP’s requested funds as the panel discussions were quickly terminated for the “long-standing tradition of parliamentary courtesy” given to high-ranking officials. Hence, the OVP’s proposed budget for 2024 was deemed immediately referred to the House plenary.
READ: Critics hit ‘servility’ as House lets VP budget sail through
It was the son of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, who made a motion to terminate deliberations on the proposed 2024 OVP budget, which the House committee on appropriations eventually approved.
Duterte was President Marcos’ running mate in the 2022 polls.
READ: House panel ends OVP budget talks in under 20 minutes; Makabayan objects
This did not sit well with Makabayan bloc legislators, who expressed their utter dismay over the proceedings, noting they came prepared to grill Duterte during the hearing, especially on the controversial use of P125 million confidential funds in 2022. They claimed such a fund was not in the OVP’s 2022 budget.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro believes that funds were illegally realigned because the 2022 OVP budget was crafted during the term of former vice president Leni Robredo. In her six-year tenure, Robredo never requested or included confidential funds in her office budget.
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