House eyes cutting into half OVP's P2-B budget

The House of Representatives is considering cutting into half the Office of the Vice President's proposed P2.037 billion allocation for 2025 to augment the budget of other agencies, a House leader disclosed Wednesday. 

In an interview, House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said the House Committee on Appropriations, tasked with scrutinizing the annual budget, is already "resolved" to slash Vice President Sara Duterte's expenditures regardless of whether she will face lawmakers to defend her budget in the following hearing. 

Duterte and the entire OVP skipped the second round of deliberation on their office's budget on Tuesday, prompting lawmakers to propose a deep cut in their expenditure. 

Castro said the House is poised to reduce the budget intended for the OVP's social programs since they already duplicate the initiatives of other agencies, especially those of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). 

"We think that the only thing that can be removed here is her socio-economic programs that she failed to justify [before the panel]," Castro said in Filipino.

"We don't want [her budget] to be zero like what they did before in the CHR that was given a P1 budget or zero. That is unfair. Perhaps we could remove her socio-economic projects that might be more or less P1 billion," she added. 

The Makabayan bloc would also pursue realigning the P10 million allotted for the "Isang Kaibigan"—the much-criticized children's book Duterte supposedly authored—to the Department of Education for the purchase of additional textbooks and other reading materials.

Panel chairperson Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co announced on Tuesday that he would recommend that the funds requested by Duterte for social services be realigned to line agencies such as the DSWD and DepEd, citing her "poor track record" in handling public resources.

Co's proposal follows Duterte's defiance to justify both her expenses in the OVP and DepEd, which she headed for nearly two years until her resignation on 19 June. 

"She doesn't want to explain [...] why amid all these sloppiness and apparent corruption she should be entrusted with P2 billion in 2025," Co said in Filipino.

Aside from the alleged misuse of the P125 million confidential funds, of which P73.2 million was disallowed by the Commission on Audit, Duterte also left the DepEd with a whopping P12.3 billion disallowances, suspensions, and charges that remained unsettled by year-end of 2023.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Adiong, the OVP's budget sponsor, said that while no policy precludes the office from engaging in other services, these must undergo Congress' scrutiny, backed up with necessary data.

A day after snubbing the budget hearing in the House, Duterte said her office could work "even without a budget." She alleged that there have been talks of "defunding" her budget next year.