Robredo:  OVP has spent 86% of released budget in 2016

Vice President Leni Robredo (Photo from Ms Robredo’s Facebook page)

NAGA CITY — Vice President Leni Robredo said on Tuesday, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) had already spent 86 percent of its budget in 2016, contrary to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) report that her office underspent last year.

A Philippine Daily Inquirer report on June 30, citing COA findings, showed that the OVP had spent only P130.7 million of its P220-million allocation to aid poor Filipinos.

But Robredo, who attended an event of the Chevron Philippines and the Department of Education here on Tuesday, said her office received only P151 million in 2016.

She said from the P151 million that the Department of Budget and Management released, the OVP was able to disburse P130,693,993 to indigents.

“If we look at it from the actual release of funds, (the spending) was not really low — almost 86 percent,” Robredo said.

She said when she and her staff examined the OVP’s records, they observed some slowing down of financial assistance during the first half of 2016 because of the elections.

Robredo said the regular release of funds started in June 2016.

“Actually, there is difficulty to catch up with the long lines of indigents waiting for financial assistance. Last week, I ordered [the assignment of] additional staff to help process the requests,” she said.

Robredo expressed confidence her office could efficiently utilize its budget.

“In 2016, I came in July. The first half [of the year], I was not there yet. In my view, the elections slowed down the spending because there were so many prohibitions,” she said.  SFM