Sara to face same budget questions

Vice President Sara Duterte will face members of the House of Representatives on 10 September over the same questions regarding her contentious P125-million confidential fund in 2022.

In an interview on Thursday, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said she is convinced her colleagues will seek clarity once again on how the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent the P125 million.

“Just like me, who did not hear a proper explanation [from Duterte], I anticipate that my fellow congressmen will be raising the same questions about the confidential fund,” she said in English and Filipino.

The House Committee on Appropriations deferred the deliberations on the OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion 2025 budget after members of the panel engaged in a fiery exchange with Duterte.

The Vice President became visibly agitated when lawmakers raised questions on how she utilized the P125 million in confidential funds in 2022, which she argued was no longer relevant to the discussion on the 2025 budget.

Former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a close ally of the VP, was one of the three lawmakers who came to Duterte’s defense despite being obviously outnumbered.

“What is being questioned now is the 2023 budget, which was discussed extensively last year, and that is the reason why the House removed the confidential funds. So that issue has already been — to my mind, for the purpose of the budget hearing — laid to rest,” Arroyo said.

Luistro maintained Congress has every right to scrutinize Duterte’s budget utilization since part of their function is to ensure that budget enactments are strictly, or at least reasonably, implemented.

“Although 2022 has ended, we have what is called an oversight function, which is simply described as post-enactment monitoring. So, I humbly believe that we are in a proper position to ask about the confidential fund,” Luistro said in the interview.

She added, “We just want to have a proper explanation [if] it was used for the purpose of national security or peace and order as mandated by Joint Circular No. 2015-01 in relation to confidential funds.”

Disallowed funds

Of the P125 million in confidential funds of the OVP in 2022, P73.28 million was disallowed by the Commission on Audit (CoA).

Based on the CoA’s notice of disallowance, P69.8 million of the P73 million was used for reward payments (P10 million), payment for various goods (P34.857 million), and payment for medicines (P24.93 million).

Meanwhile, P3.5 million was used to pay for chairs, desktop computers, and printers.