VP Sara still gets higher 2025 budget vs what Robredo had – lawmaker

Vice President Sara Duterte (left) and her predecessor, Leni Robredo.

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Vice President Sara Duterte will still get a proposed budget that is higher than that of her predecessor to ensure that operations would not be crippled, Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales said on Tuesday.

In a statement, Gonzales said that the slashed 2025 budget for the OVP that the House of Representatives approved will be higher than what former vice president Leni Robredo had.

This, the House official said, would allow the OVP to continue with its constitutional mandate.

READ: OVP budget cut from P2 billion to P733 million by House panel

“The Office of the Vice President (OVP) led by VP Duterte will not be crippled despite the decision of the House to reduce her 2025 funding. The Vice President will have sufficient funds to discharge her constitutional duties,” Gonzales said.

According to Gonzales, it was Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez’s pleading which allowed the OVP’s proposed budget to remain P733 million—similar to what the House committee on appropriations recommended—despite suggestions to trim it down further.

READ: Romualdez: OVP needs 2025 budget despite lawmakers’ concerns

The OVP was originally allocated a P2.037 billion budget under the 2025 National Expenditures Program (NEP), but lawmakers from the House decided to cut this down to just P733 million due to Duterte’s behavior at hearings—skipping discussions and refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions directly—and revelations that some of its programs suffered from low budget utilization.

Last September 25, before the House approved the General Appropriations Bill on third reading, Romualdez revealed that there was a strong call to reduce the OVP budget even further. However, Romualdez said that reducing the proposed allocation even further would be counterproductive.

Appropriations senior vice chairperson and Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo meanwhile assured the public that OVP’s programs were just transferred to agencies that can implement it better.

READ: ‘OVP programs moved to agencies that can implement it better’

OVP’s budget under Robredo—which was crafted under the time of Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte—suffered several cuts, with NEP versions not breaching the P1 billion mark.

According to the Department of Budget and Management’s Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing for fiscal year 2023, OVP under Robredo had an actual budget of P945.4 million. It was then slashed down to P713.4 million under the 2022 NEP—prompting lawmakers to ask that it be increased to at least P1 billion.

For the 2023 NEP, which was crafted while Vice President Duterte is in office, the proposed allocation increased to P2.305 billion.

“Clearly, VP Sara enjoyed much bigger budgets than what VP Leni had,” Gonzales stressed.

Robredo, for several times while she was vice president, noted that a low budget would not hinder her office from fulfilling its mandate. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robredo and OVP partnered with the private sector to deliver key services—like free bus rides for frontline workers, hot meals, quarantine facilities, mobile testing centers, and a telemedicine platform which became an important part of triage.

However, there were instances where Robredo hoped her office’s slashed budget would be restored. In October 2018, Robredo thanked the House of Representatives for approving their proposed budget immediately, but she appealed that the P100 million removed be put back.

Duterte and the current OVP are under scrutiny after budget hearings at the House revealed different issues with confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, and anomalies in the delivery of projects.

No less than House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe previously said that Duterte may be held liable for graft if she cannot explain how funds were spent, particularly regarding items with adverse findings from the Commission on Audit (COA).

COA handed out a notice of disallowance against P73.2 million of the OVP’s P125 million CF for 2022—an item which several lawmakers said should not be available in the first place, as the original budget crafted under former vice president Leni Robredo did not have this item.

The observations have led the House committee on good government and public accountability to check on the issues surrounding OVP’s budget utilization.