It took all of 10 minutes for the Senate Committee on Finance to approve on Monday the proposed P10 billion budget of the Office of the President for the next fiscal year.
The Senate panel, headed by Senator Grace Poe, ended the deliberation on the OP’s proposed budget after Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada moved for its approval, citing parliamentary courtesy.
“We trust in the transparent and accountable stewardship of public funds by the Office of the President. In the spirit of extending parliamentary courtesy to the head of a co-equal branch of government, I move that we terminate the briefing on the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of the President and that it be deemed submitted to plenary,” Estrada said at the start of the hearing.
Senator Nancy Binay seconded the motion, prompting Poe to declare the proposed budget “deemed submitted” to the Senate plenary for approval.
1.88 percent lower
The Senate’s swift approval of the OP’s proposed budget came at a time parliamentary courtesy is being questioned in the House of Representatives, particularly during its deliberations on the budget of the Office of the Vice President.
Vice President Sara Duterte, who admitted to no longer being friends with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is having a hard time getting her budget for next year approved by the administration-influenced lower chamber.
Unlike the OP’s budget, the OVP’s budget is being questioned by several members of the lower chamber, particularly the office’s P10-million outlay for a children’s book.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who represented President Marcos at the hearing, faced the senators.
Bersamin noted that for the next fiscal year, the OP is requesting P10,506,201,000, which is 1.88 percent lower than the budget allocated to the office in 2024.
“Despite the reduction in the budget being proposed, rest assured, your honors, that the same will not affect the delivery of services by the President to the people,” he said.
No-show again
The Office of the Vice President was scheduled to defend its P733-million allocation at the House plenary on Monday at 10 a.m.
However, hours before the deliberations, the OVP issued a letter stating that they “leave the deliberation of our budget proposal in the plenary entirely to the pleasure of the House of Representatives.”