VP Sara Duterte’s outburst should not affect OVP budget – Poe

Vice President Sara Duterte attends the House probe into the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education’s confidential funds on Nov. 25, ,2024. Noy Morcoso/ INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Will Vice President Sara Duterte’s outburst make the Senate reject her office’s proposed budget hike next year? Senate panel on finance chair Sen. Grace Poe said it shouldn’t be the case.

In an ambush interview on Monday, Poe emphasized that an official’s personality should not affect an agency’s budget.

Duterte on Saturday bared that she contracted an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she is killed. The Vice President also said she was not joking.

READ: VP Sara publicly threatens to have the president assassinated

“That should never have affected anything. This is not about personality,” Poe said in Filipino when she was asked if Duterte’s threats against Marcos would affect the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget for 2025.

Sen. JV Ejercito, meanwhile, hopes that Marcos and Duterte would prioritize their duties over their rift.

“Maybe let’s focus on our work. I got sad with all this political noise and bickering. It’s hard to move forward,” he told reporters in Filipino.

“Let’s just focus on the problem. We have so many things to go after, we are being left behind by our Asean neighbors. I recently went to Thailand and Malaysia, and we’re being left behind and all of these bickerings are not gonna help at all,” he added.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada shunned calls for another people power revolution at Edsa.

“Let’s stop that. It will just cause divisiveness among our countrymen. Enough with Edsa 1 and Edsa 2. We don’t need that right now. There’s a lot of pressing problems in our country that need to be attended to,” he said in Filipino.

Estrada likewise refused to dip his toes into the issue, saying he would just pray that Marcos and Duterte would resolve their dispute.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, meanwhile, maintained that there is a need to increase the OVP’s budget despite Duterte’s threats.

“We don’t think about personalities. I only consider the office, the office itself. So that’s all I can say but of course, other members have their different opinions about what just transpired recently,” he said.

Only Senate Minority Koko Pimentel has so far said that Duterte’s outburst “can affect the budget of the OVP.”

“We may decide that with her behavior; she and her office do not deserve more budget,” Pimentel said in a message to reporters on Monday.

READ: Sara Duterte’s behavior may affect OVP budget – Sen. Pimentel