Marcos laments ‘no politics’ in OVP budget hearings

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday lamented politics has nothing to do with the ongoing budget hearings for the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. 

“This is a budget hearing. This is something that every single government agency has to do. It's a hearing, there's no politics in it. We do it every year, we do it with the same department, we do it. That process is well established, it has nothing to do with politics,” Marcos said in an interview, denying Duterte’s claims that the deliberation of the OVP’s funds were being politicized. 

Marcos explained the budget deliberation is a well-established discourse conducted annually by Congress to “every single government agency, including the Office of the Vice President. 

“It has to do with the budget, so I don't know how can she characterized these things, which is essentially an information gathering exercise for the House and for the Senate, so that they know what the budget will look like,” he said. 

“So malayo sa politika ‘yun (It's far from politics),” he added. 

To recall, Senator Risa Hontiveros earlier had an heated argument with Duterte over the OVP’s P10-million budget item proposal for 2025.

During a recent Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on the OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion budget for 2025, Hontiveros questioned the OVP’s programs she said are similar to the existing programs of other government agencies.

Duterte accused Hontiveros of politicizing the budget hearing.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives' committee on appropriations deferred the deliberations of the OVP's proposed budget for next year after Duterte repeatedly refused to answer the utilization of her office's proposed budget.