MANILA, Philippines — Printing each copy of Vice President Sara Duterte’s children’s book "Isang Kaibigan (A Friend)" will cost P50, according to the Office of the Vice President, which has allocated P10 million in the proposed 2025 budget to print up to 200,000 copies.
OVP Spokesperson Michael Poa said the estimated cost was derived from a thorough study, but the actual cost may still decrease during the bidding process.
"'Yung paglimbag o pag-imprenta ng book is around P50 per book. Kaya yan ang proposed budget," Poa said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
(The cost of printing the book is around P50 per copy. That’s why this is the proposed budget.)
"But as you know sa bidding, meron lang tayong estimate or approved budget of contract o yung ceiling. Pag binid out natin, bababa. But that's our—ayon sa pagaaral, yan ang estimate na nilatag o prinopose natin," he added.
(But as you know, in bidding, we only have an estimate or approved budget of the contract, or the ceiling. When we go through the bidding, the price will likely decrease. But according to our study, that’s the estimate we have proposed.)
On Tuesday, during the Senate's budget deliberations for the OVP, Sen. Risa Hontiveros' inquiry about the P10 million children's book project irked the vice president, who said she was being thrown politically motivated questions.
After being asked by Hontiveros to explain the contents of the children's book, Duterte refused to answer the question and began to recall the senator's previous criticisms of the vice president and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Visibly puzzled by Duterte's response, Hontiveros clarified that it was her and other lawmakers' jobs to scrutinize line items in the proposed 2025 budget.
The proposed budget for printing the children's books is lodged into the OVP's P100-million "A Million Learners and Trees" campaign, which involves the distribution of bags to a million students in remote areas and the conduct of tree planting activities.
The OVP stands to get a total P2.037 billion budget next year.
Not early campaigning
On Wednesday, Poa clarified that the planned distribution of the book to students is not a form of early campaigning for Duterte, who said she has no concrete plans yet for the 2028 national elections.
“Pagdating sa pangangampanya, hindi po ito pangangampanya. Nasabi na ng ating vice president na malayo sa isip niya ang 2028 dahil marami pang pwedeng mangyari mula ngayon hanggang 2028," Poa said.
(When it comes to campaigning, this is not a campaign. Our Vice President has already said that the 2028 elections are far from her mind because many things can happen between now and 2028.)
A copy of the 16-page book seen by Philstar.com in November 2023 when it was first launched by the Department of Education shows that the story is about the friendship between an owl and a parrot.
The author's page contains a photo of the vice president, her positions in government and the sentence: "Siya ay isang tunay na kaibigan (She is a true friend)."
LOOK: These are the pages of the "Isang Kaibigan" book that Vice President Sara Duterte launched in November 2023.
Duterte's temper flared after Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked her about the book project during today's Senate budget hearing of the Office of the Vice President.
????:… pic.twitter.com/dJVk6j7MxF— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) August 20, 2024