Sara Duterte: Zero budget not a problem for OVP

BREAK WITH TRADITION The proposed 2025 budget for the Office of the Vice President has yet to hurdle committee-level discussions at the House of Representatives, which has traditionally passed the Vice President’s budget with no fuss. —House of Representatives

MANILA, Philippines — With or without a budget, her “small” office will be able to operate, Vice President Sara Duterte said in a recent interview, as she also doubled down on her claim that certain lawmakers were working to impeach her.

“We have heard of moves to defund. We also heard of the possibility of giving us a P1 budget for the Office of the Vice President (OVP). We are ready in the OVP to work even without a budget,” she said in a Sept. 4 interview, part of which was provided by her office to reporters on Wednesday.

The day before, Duterte snubbed the resumption of the House deliberations on the OVP’s 2025 budget proposal, a move seen by lawmakers as an “insult” to the institution.

As a result, some lawmakers were considering slashing her P2.037-billion budget and realigning the money to line agencies offering social services.

In the first budget deliberations held on Aug. 27, Duterte told lawmakers she was forgoing the opportunity to defend her budget by question and answer. She also refused to explain how the P125-million confidential funds given in 2022 to the OVP were spent in just 11 days.

Orchestrated attacks

In the interview, Duterte said that efforts to defund her office were all part of orchestrated “attacks” against her and the OVP.

“You can see that they already prepared a PowerPoint presentation and even an audiovisual presentation. They were reading a script,” she added.

According to her, the removal of P650 million in confidential funds from the 2024 budgets of the OVP and Department of Education, which she headed until July this year, was also “part of attacks” against her.

“And to make it appear that they weren’t attacking me, they also removed the confidential funds of other departments,” Duterte claimed.

Ranking House leaders, however, said most of the issues she raised were “self-inflicted” and could have been resolved had she attended Tuesday’s budget deliberations.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Adiong Alonto, Tingog Rep. Jude Acidre, 1-Rider Rep. Rodge Gutierrez and La Union Rep. Pablo Ortega also defended their scrutiny of the OVP’s 2025 budget, which was deferred a second time due to audit findings the previous budgets were inefficiently used.

“I have heard of impeachment talks but only coming from her, I don’t hear it here in Congress,” said Gutierrez. “I can guarantee that.”

No politicking

“I think the ones that are accusing us of politicking are the ones who are actually doing the politicking,” said Adiong, the designated sponsor of the OVP budget. “Nobody is thinking of 2028 because that is a long way off and what is immediate to us is for the entire bureaucracy of this country to operate.”

Specifically, Ortega said the issues facing the OVP were mostly “self-inflicted … We have done nothing but look into the issues.”

At the Senate, a Duterte ally expressed belief that many of his colleagues would eventually follow the “long-honored tradition” of quickly ending deliberations or not subjecting the President and the Vice President’s budgets to scrutiny.

“That’s my personal opinion … Generally, my observation is that the tradition is observed … We do not make it difficult for [them],” Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said.

Asked if he believes that some House lawmakers were ganging up on Duterte, he replied: “Is it not clear to you? Did you not notice it? Yes, it is very obvious.”

“I’m not saying it was wrong [that she did not attend the budget hearing], but look at the reasons why she did not face them,” he said.