VP Sara Duterte’s spending draws more Congress scrutiny

Vice President Sara Duterte —Screengrab from the House of Representatives video

MANILA, Philippines — The travails of Vice President Sara Duterte continued on Tuesday in Congress, with her absence in the House budget hearing forcing lawmakers to propose either a cut or transfer of funds she requested for her office, while senators recounted her alleged misuse of nearly a third of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) allocation in 2023, her last full year as its head.

The House appropriations committee decided to defer the deliberation on the proposed P2-billion budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) “subject to conditions, either, number one, reduce the proposed budget … and number two, place certain funds on hold until further discussions are held.”

With this move, proposed by Ako Bicol Rep. Jil Bongalon and seconded by the panel with no objections, Duterte missed the last chance to defend her office’s budget at the committee level.

READ: VP Sara skips House hearing on 2025 OVP budget, sends letter instead

This is the second time that the OVP failed to sail through the budget deliberations, a courtesy normally accorded to the two highest offices in the country.

House Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, the sponsor for the OVP budget, said discussions would now move to the plenary, where the 300-strong House led by Speaker Martin Romualdez could move to slash the OVP’s social services budget and transfer it to line agencies.

Appropriations panel chair and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co himself vowed to recommend it, pointing out that Duterte could no longer be entrusted with public funds.

“Should we give her P2 billion that she claims the OVP will use to help the poor? We should give this instead to the right agency. We will not allow even a single peso to again be squandered,” Co said during the hearing.

Long list

This came after the panel members pointed out several irregularities in the OVP’s 2023 budget as flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA), including the “overpriced” rentals for the OVP’s satellite offices and the dismally low disbursement of funds for its flagship livelihood project.

1-Rider Rep. Rodge Gutierrez, Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles, and Zambales Rep. Doris Maniquiz cited the COA observation that the OVP spent P53.5 million for the lease of 10 satellite offices nationwide, or roughly P4.4 million per office.

“If we really think about it, the [services] offered by the satellite offices are but a duplication of the services already offered by our line agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment [and] the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Shouldn’t we disallow these kinds of expenses that are a duplication?” Maniquiz asked.

Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, meanwhile, noted that the OVP’s Magnegosyo Ta Day livelihood program was allotted P150 million but was able to use only P600,000, or a mere 0.4 percent, as of 2023.

“This is a clear waste of funds when this could be realigned to sectors that need it,” Brosas noted.

‘Ghost deliveries’

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro then cited a COA finding saying there were food items worth more than P148,000 intended to be given out for the OVP’s Kalusugan Food Truck, a mobile kitchen program, which were “near expiry” and were “kept in an unventilated shipping container.”

“This is not a huge amount but this is the same observation that we had in the [DepEd],” Luistro said, referring to a 2023 COA audit report on the agency’s P5.69-billion school-based feeding program during Duterte’s time where it noted that insect-infested or moldy nutribuns and other rotting food items were distributed in Aurora, Bulacan and Misamis Oriental.

Luistro likewise flagged the improper liquidation of at least P65 million worth of funds spent for welfare goods, noting that the OVP failed to submit supporting documents for its PanSarap Buns pilot testing in Davao and Maguindanao, as well as the distribution of yearend food packs.

“I hope not, but I’m afraid this might be a case of ghost deliveries,” Luistro said.

Bongalon and Adiong also got the COA to admit that Duterte has yet to formally appeal the notice of disallowance on P73 million of its P125-million confidential funds in 2022, despite Duterte’s repeated claims that her office was already cooperating with the state auditor.

The OVP has six months, or until February at least, to challenge the notice.

COA findings

In the Upper Chamber, Sen. Risa Hontiveros questioned why DepEd borrowed P6 billion from the World Bank (WB) in 2023 to finance the upskilling of public school teachers despite its failure to use the funding it received from the government for the same project.

At the Senate hearing on DepEd’s budget request of P793.18 billion for 2025, Hontiveros also raised the COA findings that flagged the department’s “accounting deficiencies” in implementing programs worth P229 billion, which was almost 30 percent of its approved outlay of P762 billion.

Hontiveros said among those flagged by the COA was the DepEd’s nonpayment of P3.79 billion in mandatory contributions to the Government Service Insurance System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and Home Development Mutual Fund.

In addition, she said the department had unliquidated cash advances of P6.96 billion, “unsettled suspension, disallowances and charges” of P12.3 billion, and P209 million in “irregular, unnecessary and excessive expenditures.”

“If these are correct, it’s overwhelming that billions of pesos (in public funds) were not spent efficiently and correctly,” Hontiveros lamented.

Training program loan

According to Hontiveros, DepEd received a budget of P500 million to bankroll the training program for public school teachers under its Human Resource Development project.

She said the allotment was in support of the WB-funded Teacher Effectiveness and Competencies Enhancement Project (Tecep), which was chiefly financed by a $110-million (about P6.13 billion) loan from the multilateral lender.

“Is it right that DepEd borrowed about P6 billion in 2023 for the teachers’ development (program) even though the fund allotted to it was not used efficiently and correctly?” Hontiveros asked.

Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara, who quit as senator when the President tapped him to succeed Duterte, acknowledged that state auditors had indeed called out the department for its spending performance.

“And regarding your query about the loan agreement for Tecep, there is a commitment charge of 0.25 percent (a year) on the unwithdrawn loan balance,” he said.

Angara noted that DepEd would be required to pay “commitment fees” once it asks for an extension if it fails to fully meet the project’s targets by 2028.

Hontiveros then asked Angara why the department had to take out a loan when the government had already allotted funds for the project.

Angara said the project was to be implemented in public schools in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Central Mindanao.

“It was estimated that the original project (funding from the budget) was insufficient even for those three currently underperforming regions,” Angara explained.