OVP threatened with budget cuts

A House leader vows to propose deep cuts in the 2025 budget of Vice President Sara Duterte’s office amid allegations she misused P125 million of her contentious confidential funds in 2022.

The Office of the Vice President is proposing a P2.037 billion allocation for fiscal year 2025, which is 8.05 percent higher than this year’s OVP budget of P1.88 billion.

Duterte has said she would use part of the OVP’s budget for various social services programs and other projects, including for the much-criticized children’s book she supposedly authored, “Isang Kaibigan.”

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro, whom Duterte called a “child abuser” thus has no right to sit in Congress, maintained that the budget for social services should be channeled directly to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) instead of the OVP.

“The DSWD has the mandate and expertise to handle social services. By funneling the budget to the DSWD, we can ensure that the funds are used properly and reach those who need them most,” Castro said in a message to reporters on Sunday.

Castro took notice of the Commission on Audit’s (CoA) findings regarding Duterte’s use of P125 million in confidential funds in 2022, of which P73.287 million was disallowed by the state auditing body.

According to the CoA, the OVP spent P69.8 million on reward payments, including P10 million in cash, P34.857 million on various goods, and P24.93 million worth of medicines.

CoA flagged the spending due to the absence of “documents evidencing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities” to support the rewards.

The remaining P3.5 million was used to pay for chairs, desktop computers, and printers, but the OVP failed to specify that the funds were intended for confidential operations or activities, according to state auditors.

“Given the previous misuse of confidential funds, we must ensure that public funds are allocated and utilized properly. We cannot allow the allocation of a separate budget for a department with a dubious track record,” Castro said.

She added, “CoA’s findings are clear. If the OVP cannot properly manage its P73 million in confidential funds, how can we entrust them with an even larger budget? This is about protecting taxpayers’ money from potential misuse.”

At the OVP’s budget hearing last Tuesday, members of the House Committee on Appropriations took turns questioning how Duterte utilized her multimillion-peso confidential fund.