Sara asks senators to restore cut in OVP budget: 200 could lose jobs

VP Sara Duterte —Richard A. Reyes

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte personally attended the Senate plenary deliberations on her office’s proposed 2025 budget, hoping to persuade senators to restore the nearly P1.3-billion cut from her allocation following allegations of fund misuse made against her at a House inquiry.

In the end, the senators approved the P733-million outlay of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in less than 10 minutes, adopting the House version that slashed the original P2.03-billion proposal.

Duterte, however, secured a promise from her allies in the chamber, Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go, to either give additional funding to the OVP or restore its massive budget cuts during the period of amendments.

READ: Senate OKs OVP’s P733M allocation, but Go seeks to restore budget cuts

At a press briefing after the deliberations, Duterte thanked the Senate for “accommodating” and acting on the OVP budget.

According to her, OVP personnel are hopeful that the budget would be increased to allow the office to retain employees and continue its programs.

200 jobs at risk

“If it’s returned, it would be a huge thing for us because we wouldn’t need to reject those who approach our office seeking help, especially those who need medical and burial assistance,” she said.

Duterte added that around 200 OVP contract of service personnel could lose their jobs under the reduced budget.

Most of those who will be affected by budget cuts are personnel from the OVP’s various satellite offices, she said.

Duterte had skipped the House plenary deliberations on the OVP budget, reasoning that she wanted to deny her critics in that chamber any chance to attack her.

“We know that they will reiterate all their questions that are not related to the submitted budget of the Office of the Vice President,” she said.

The House good government committee is investigating corruption allegations involving the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd), which Duterte headed until she left her post in July.

The panel has heard testimonies of alleged irregularities in the OVP’s use of confidential funds, including claims that it submitted deficient receipts to liquidate expenses, as well as Duterte’s alleged practice of handing cash envelopes to select DepEd officials to influence decisions on the agency’s procurement processes.

Not yet final

Interviewed by reporters, Sen. Grace Poe, the Senate finance committee chair and principal sponsor of the budget, explained that the P733 million earmarked for the OVP was not yet final as senators may still propose to either increase or decrease it, subject to the body’s approval.

“For now, it’s retained … but in the period of amendment, Senator Bato and Senator Bong Go can propose amendments. Of course, I’m only the chairperson. It will also depend on the approval of the body,” she said.

According to Poe, the Senate is still waiting for the OVP’s submission of the missing details of the items which had been removed under the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), or the House version of the budget measure.

“One of the reasons why we retained the GAB proposal is because we’re still awaiting the documents from the OVP … There’s nothing yet,” she said.

In response to Go’s appeal for the restoration of funding for the OVP’s programs, Poe clarified that there was still funding for the office’s social services.

“We are just waiting for the details from the OVP to identify what these programs are. If I’m not mistaken, there’s about P600 million still for social programs. But we’ve been waiting for submission also from the OVP of what the itemized allocations are for,” she said.

Like the OVP, the proposed budget of the Office of the President (OP), amounting to P10.5 billion, also breezed through the Senate plenary, with no questions asked.

“Upon consultation with the chairperson of the committee on finance as well as Minority Leader (Aquilino) Koko Pimentel, I move that we consider and adopt for consideration of the Senate and approval of the budget of the OP, the president’s offices, and the Presidential Management Staff,” Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino said.

Not just a spare tire

Dela Rosa vowed to introduce amendments to the OVP’s budget at the proper time.

Go also took the Senate floor to make an appeal on the OVP’s behalf, citing government offices with a bigger budget than Duterte’s office but were “underperforming.”

“I’m calling on our colleagues here to kindly support the addition or restoration of the funds … so that our Vice President, who is part of the executive branch of the government, can carry out her duties properly. We want a working Vice President, not just a spare tire,” Go said in Filipino.

At the briefing, Duterte denounced what she called the “political persecution” by the House against her family, especially her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who on Wednesday faced the quad committee investigating his administration’s drug war.

“Like in our experience, they used the rules according to their pleasure. We have seen that even if the rules are unconstitutional, they insist on using them,” Duterte said.

Asked if she expected fair treatment from the House body, the Vice President said: “Of course not! No, I do not expect fairness.”

“It’s clearly political persecution,” Duterte said, adding: “Do I worry about the former president? I don’t think that he will go there if he’s weak health-wise. So he’ll be OK.”