Senate OKs OVP’s P443.946-M budget for 2018

Vice President Leni Robredo FILE PHOTO / Facebook page

The Senate finance committee approved on Tuesday the proposed 2018 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

The OVP requested P443.946 million for 2018, a 3.6 percent increase from 2017’s P428.618 million approved budget.

Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who attended the budget hearing, said the slight increase in their budget was due to the positions in the OVP which were already filled up.

Robredo added that the OVP continued to focus their current budget proposal on advocacies to alleviate poverty.

“Since the Office of the Vice President does not have an expressed legal mandate, we work to make our office beyond our ceremonial functions and enhance its focus on advocacies that would complement the administration’s poverty alleviation program,” Robredo said during the budget hearing.

The vice president said their current anti-poverty program “Angat Buhay” focused on nutrition and food security, universal healthcare, education, rural development, and women empowerment.

According to Robredo, the OVP utilized the following funds from July 1, 2016 to June 29, 2017 for poverty alleviation:

– P24.5 million for the livelihood and jobs of 6,618 Filipino families
– P16.1 million for education projects of 19,264 families
– P8.5 million for food security and nutrition of 6,926 families
– P2 million for universal health care of 2,608 families
– P1.5 million for housing and resettlement of 1,933 families
– P38.3 million for disaster and rehabilitation of 37 ,687 families

Following this, Senate finance committee chair Senator Loren Legarda asked Robredo to submit a yearlong report on the needs of the areas and sectors the OVP had reached throughout the country.

“Actually submit a full year report on the areas that are in need, that are not being served or are underserved, and in whatever aspects,” Legarda said.

“I’m not promising that it would all be funded for 2018 but perhaps, nakakaligtaan lang. Pagtutulungan nation ito,” she added.

Senator Bam Aquino, the vice chair of the Senate finance committee also attended the hearing.