MANILA, Philippines — No less than the designated sponsor of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) proposed budget at the House of Representatives admitted that it will be a difficult task to defend the allocations if Vice President Sara Duterte’s answers remain the same.
In an ambush interview on Tuesday after the House committee on appropriations’ hearing, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong—who was assigned to defend the OVP budget at the plenary—said Duterte avoided almost all of the questions raised by lawmakers in the grueling five and a half hour briefing
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Tensions flared at different portions of the hearing after Duterte refrained from giving direct answers—only saying that she either forgoes the opportunity to defend the budget in a question-and-answer format, or by insisting that they have already coordinated with the Commission on Audit regarding a notice of disallowance.
“Well, she tried to avoid questions. It’s very apparent naman. She avoided answering some questions. Not some questions but even all of the questions […] So everyone is really asking this reason why. Your guess is as good as mine. I cannot speak for her, the way she responded to the question but I can tell you it’s going to be a lot difficult task for me to defend and sponsor the budget,” he said.
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“If that continues in the next line of answers, continue in the next committee hearing because that would be a difficult task for me,” Adiong added.
The lawmaker also confessed that he was disappointed with how the discussions went—noting that it was the first time he saw lawmakers’ questions get such answers.
“I was expecting more productive exchanges because that has been the tradition since the creation of the House of Representatives in the past, this is actually the first time that I saw that a deliberation went this way. But as you’re asking me, as a vice chairman, as a sponsor, of course it’s going to be a lot difficult if I bring this to the plenary and sponsor and then later on defend the budget,” Adiong said.
Frustrated
“I was hoping that all the questions from my colleagues will be satisfactorily answered by the Vice President. Unfortunately, that did not happen. So, of course, I’m a bit frustrated on how things went during the course of the committee deliberations,” he added.
During the discussions, Duterte’s behavior and decision to give a similar response to questions led to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro to compare her to a squid, which releases ink whenever under pressure.
Duterte also had to be reminded several times to exercise decorum, with appropriations senior vice chairperson and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo calling out the Vice President for talking before she was even recognized.
At one point in the hearing, Duterte also asked the committee chair—Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co — to supervise over the hearing instead of Quimbo.
Duterte, for her part, maintained that questions raised by Castro and other lawmakers should not be entertained because the appropriations hearing is for the OVP’s proposed budget for 2025, and not for the past fiscal years.
Quimbo however reminded Duterte that questions relating to past appropriations are crucial to crafting the 2025 budget.
Adiong said he has talked to Duterte after the hearing, hoping that they get to sit down to discuss how the next hearing of the OVP budget would shape up.
The OVP was directed by the House panel to come back by September 10, after a motion to defer the budget deliberations was approved on the grounds of Duterte’s allegedly evasive answers.
“I did (talk to her), I actually went to the Vice President and asked her if there’s a possibility that we can sit down, her chief of staff and my chief of staff, so that we can also get data apart from what she presented, at least some explanation on why the Vice President, Office of the Vice President requested this particular program to be retained in the 2025 NEP (National Expenditures Program),” Adiong said.
“So I would really want to know from her staff, from the office, her office, what prompted her, for example, to prioritize the list of programs and projects that she included in the proposed budget for her office,” he added.
Under the rules of the House committee on appropriations, all vice chairpersons would be tasked to defend the budget of respective agencies at the plenary, once deliberations on their proposed allocations are terminated.
For the previous years, Davao de Oro Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora defended OVP’s budget at the plenary.