The proposed P785.20 million budget for fiscal year 2027 of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) contained no confidential funds, a lawmaker said.

Following the conclusion of the House Committee on Appropriations deliberations on OVP’s budget, the panel’s chairperson Rep. Jose Alvarez confirmed to reporters that Vice President Sara Duterte did not request for confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) allocations.

“None. Nothing. So it’s up to the President if he will give confidential funds to the Office of the Vice President, that is his decision,” Alvarez answered when asked about the matter.

The development marked the third consecutive year that the Vice President’s proposed budget did not contain a CIF since her request for P500 million in confidential funds for the 2024 national budget was flagged and disapproved.

Lawmakers and the public echoed similar pushback for the approval of the funds based on alleged issues when it came to how previous allocations were handled by the OVP.

The issue had since resurfaced as her alleged misuse of confidential funds were included as one of the articles of her ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate.

Second-lowest budget

Aside from the absence of CIF, a matter worth noting is that if the proposed P785.20 amount for the OVP were approved, it would mark the second lowest budget of the office since Duterte assumed office in 2022.

From the budget, P561.65 million was allocated for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses, P235.78 million was placed for Personnel Services, while the remaining P3.32 million was for capital outlays.

The OVP mentioned that a major position of the budget was also intended for its various projects and activities which was targeted at providing services for roughly 1.4 million Filipinos in 2027.

Among the programs that the office disclosed were medical and burial assistance, disaster response operations, relief for indigents and individuals in crises and emergencies, and the OVP’s “Libreng Sakay” initiative.