Vice President Duterte failed to appear before the House of Representatives on Tuesday to defend the 2024 budget of her office and the Department of Education, which she also heads.
Due to a "possible conflict of schedule", Duterte skipped OVP's and DepEd's budget deliberations, prompting the House to move it on Wednesday, along with other agencies.

Duterte sought P2.395 billion for OVP and P758.6 billion for DepEd, including P500 million and P150 million in confidential funds, respectively, for 2024.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a member of the majority, told lawmakers that Duterte will not appear in the plenary, following a question by ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. on why the OVP and DepEd budgets have not been addressed on the floor yet.

"I just would like to inquire about our schedule for today, because, as written in our schedule for today, after the OP (Office of the President), there should be OVP and Department of Education. So, at this point in time, what is the estimated time that the budget deliberation for the OVP and the DepEd be deliberated today?" asked Castro, one of the opponents and critics of Duterte's confidential funds.

Based on the initial schedule, deliberations in the budget of the OP would come first, followed by OVP and DepEd, which did not materialize as planned.

"The OVP, as well as Secretary of the Department of Education, conveyed a message to the [House] Committee on Appropriations as well as the [House] Committee on Rules of a possible conflict of schedule," Garin responded.

"As of the moment, the deliberations on the proposed budget of OVP, as well as the DepEd, have been temporarily moved tomorrow, considering we also have other agencies in the pipeline," she added.

OVP spokesperson Reynold Munsayac confirmed to reporters that the budget hearing for the two agencies will be rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

The rescheduling of deliberations in the proposed budget of OVP and DepEd came a day after Duterte made headlines that the OVP spent P125 million in confidential funds in 2022 in merely 11 days—not 19 days—as initially claimed by some opposition lawmakers.