After Congress pushback, Sara withdraws confidential funds request
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has dropped her request for P650 million-worth of confidential funds in the proposed budget for next year following months of widespread pushback that led her to tag critics as “enemies of the people.”
In a statement sent to Sen. Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, who chairs the Senate finance committee, Duterte said that she has withdrawn her confidential fund request because the “issue” has become “divisive.”
“[We] will no longer pursue the Confidential Funds. Why? Because this issue is divisive, and as the Vice President, I swore an oath to keep the country peaceful and strong,” Duterte said in a statement.
The Office of the Vice President can “only propose a budget to support the safe implementation of our programs, activities, and projects to alleviate poverty and promote the general welfare of every Filipino family,” the statement read.
Duterte originally requested P650 million-worth of confidential funds in the proposed 2024 budget. Broken down, P500 million was meant for the OVP while P150 million was allocated to DepEd.
It was during the second day of the Senate’s plenary debates on the proposed 2024 budget on Thursday that the OVP’s statement was read out by Angara, officially taking out the request for confidential and intelligence funds in the requested budget of the OVP.
Angara was speaking on behalf of the OVP because he sponsored its budget proposal in the plenary, as practiced in Senate procedures.
Duterte also dropped the request for the secret funds for DepEd, saying through Sen. Pia Cayetano, who sponsored the DepEd budget: “We are all parents who want to protect our children. (...) Nonetheless, the DepEd will no longer pursue the confidential funds.”
The vice president had "only released that kind of statement because the public has been made aware of how she has taken advantage of the confidential funds," Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) said in Filipino.
The lawmaker added that it was never part of the OVP's mandate to have confidential and intelligence funds in the first place.
"So the OVP never had the right to have these," the lawmaker added.Similarly, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) called on Duterte to "not be complacent" and believe that "the public will be silent" after her decision to drop her request."Duterte is simply evading accountability and avoiding having to explain how the confidential funds were used. Her ratings are also declining, and maybe she just doesn't want to be shamed in the Senate," Manuel said in Filipino.
On Tuesday, a senator disclosed that the upper chamber had “unanimously” decided to take out the confidential and intelligence funds from all civilian agencies, including the OVP and the DepEd.
This came after a Politiko report that claimed, based on an anonymous source, that nine senators wanted to restore the secret funds allocated to Duterte’s office, which the House had realigned to agencies tasked with defending the West Philippine Sea.
Duterte branded critics of confidential funds as “enemies of the people” due to its supposed necessity for peace and security — a statement she issued days after the House started its process of realigning the controversial fund.
Duterte’s rejected request for confidential funds triggered former President Rodrigo Duterte to publicly accuse House Speaker Martin Romualdez and the entire House of being engaged in corrupt activities, labeling the latter as the “most corrupt institution” in the country.
It was this remark that intensified political rifts in the lower chamber, prompting a test of loyalty among House leaders that eventually led to the removal of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and another Duterte ally from the ranks of House deputy speakers.
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