MANILA, Philippines — Officials from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its attached agencies earned praises from Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Wednesday for responding to non-budget-related issues.
“Kita mo naman itong ating hearing dito sa Senado sa budget, kahit na hindi about the budget specifically e sumasagot ang ating mga resource persons,” Pimentel commented during the Senate subcommittee on finance’s hearing on the DOJ’s budget.
(You can see our budget hearing here in the Senate, even though it’s not specifically about the budget, our resource persons are still answering our questions)
“’Yan ang magandang interaction natin, ‘di ba? Kahit hindi technically about your budget, e sagot pa rin kasi we need inputs e. Hindi naman namin alam lahat ‘yang detalye ng budget ninyo,” he added.
(That’s a good interaction, right? Even if it’s not technically about your budget, you still answer our questions because we need your input. We don’t know every detail of your budget.)
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla himself defended the DOJ’s proposed P40.585 billion budget for 2025.
Pimentel’s remark came just a day after Vice President Sara Duterte’s refusal to answer some of the questions raised during a budget hearing in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
READ: Duterte refuses to answer OVP budget questions, sparks House tension
At the start of the hearing of the House’s committee on appropriations, Duterte declared that she would “forego the opportunity to defend the budget in a question-and-answer format.”
“I will leave it up to the House to decide on the budget submitted,” she said.
So when ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro proceeded to ask about the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential allowance in 2022, Duterte protested and requested the committee’s rules on budget deliberations.
“Gusto mong sagutin ko, Ma’am? This is a hearing of the budget of 2025; nasaan dito ang confidential funds? Naasaan dito?” Duterte asked.
(You want me to answer that, Ma’am? This is a hearing of the budget for 2025; where are the confidential funds here?)
The vice president even questioned why a “person convicted of child abuse is still sitting in a seat in the House of Representatives.”
Her remark was directed to Castro, who was among those convicted of child abuse charges by a Tagum City court in relation to the 2018 incident involving indigenous students in Mindanao.
READ: Ocampo, Castro, 11 others convicted of child abuse
Duterte also clashed with Sen. Risa Hontiveros when she defended the OVP’s budget last week in the Senate.
She even accused Hontiveros of “politicizing” the government’s funds after the senator asked about a P10 million budget tucked in the OVP’s budget proposal for the distribution of a children’s book that the vice president herself authored.
READ: Duterte, Hontiveros clash over ‘politicizing’ budget hearings