Bratinella? Sara snubs House OVP budget hearing

MANILA, Philippines — After clashing with lawmakers last week over her office budget, Vice President Sara Duterte was a no-show at the House of Representatives appropriations committee’s second budget deliberation yesterday, earning condemnation from some lawmakers who described her as “bratinella to the max.”

Instead Duterte, who had denied being a “bratinella” or spoiled brat when she attended the first budget hearing, accused Speaker Martin Romualdez and the committee’s chairman of meddling with the Department of Education (DepEd)’s classroom budget for the past two years.

At 9 a.m., members of the powerful House panel assembled for the second round of deliberations for the Office of the Vice President (OVP)’s proposed P2.037-billion budget for 2025.

At the same time, Duterte’s office released to the press the second part of her taped interview, where she went on to accuse Romualdez and panel chairman Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co of hijacking billions in additional funds meant to build and repair classrooms.

Duterte revealed that she was approached by lawmakers from the House asking for a portion of the DepEd’s proposed P5 billion for classroom construction last year, which she said she refused.

“I was surprised that someone was asking for portions, telling me: ‘How much of that will be ours?’ So I told them, ‘This can’t be. Because the DepEd can’t construct classrooms based on the classroom backlog,’ ” Duterte said in the taped interview.

“So I told one congressman, ‘Tell Martin Romualdez that he cannot chop up the P5-billion classroom construction’ (and distribute it to certain House members),” she added.

Duterte noted that since she refused the alleged scheme, the school construction budget for 2023 was increased to P15 billion, only P5 billion of which was actually for the DepEd.

The Vice President said the remaining P10 billion is part of a backdoor strategy and that Romualdez and Co, not the DepEd, had control over that portion.

“I don’t need corroborative witnesses here because documents would show that. In the National Expenditure Program, it was P5 million. When the approved budget was released, it was P15 billion,” Duterte added, asserting that this was one of the reasons she resigned from the DepEd.

She explained that this was also one of the reasons she was so hostile towards lawmakers when questioned about how she oversaw the spending of the DepEd and the OVP budgets for the past two years.

“The Philippines’ budget is handled by two people: Congressman Zaldy Co and Congressman Martin Romualdez. That’s the truth,” the Vice President said.

“So you’d understand, right? Why would we do budget hearings for the OVP when only two people have control over the budget of the country?” she added.

Duterte said House leaders did the same in the 2024 budget, where a proposed P19 billion for classroom construction was raised to P24 billion.

She added that despite the injections into the classroom budget, what was left “for the poor classrooms is just P1 billion.”

“You can see that on paper. When it was the Senate’s time (to deliberate on our proposal), senators saw this. They asked the DepEd, ‘Is it true or not that the list of P17 billion for classroom construction came from you?’ ” Duterte said.

“So we told senators, ‘It’s not true. We will not be able to do our jobs. We will not be able to solve the classroom backlog if this will be the way things will go’,” she added.

‘Up to House’

As not even a representative of the OVP – whether undersecretary, assistant secretary or even someone down to the director level – appeared during yesterday’s deliberations, the office said it “defers entirely to the discretion and judgment of the committee regarding its budget proposal for 2025.”

“Moreover, as stated in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives sent earlier today, the OVP has submitted all necessary documentation to the House of Representatives – committee on appropriations, including a detailed presentation on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025,” the OVP said in a statement yesterday.

Last Monday, Duterte said she was not being a “spoiled brat” when she took a hostile approach to lawmakers’ questions during deliberations for the OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion funding for 2025.

Stressing that her stonewalling of the OVP’s budget hearing was her response to what she anticipated as a political sideshow for lawmakers to “attack” her, Duterte said her critics misunderstood her behavior during the deliberations.

In her appearances at the budget hearings before the Senate and the House, Duterte took on a hostile approach towards questions about how the OVP had spent its funds the previous years.

Lawmakers and critics found her demeanor “disrespectful” to the basic principles of check and balance enshrined in the Constitution.

Citing audit reports that flagged irregularities and mismanaged funds, House lawmakers voiced their concerns about how Duterte’s offices spent their resources for government services.

Among the top concerns were P73 million of the P125-million OVP confidential funds that the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged in 2022.

Insult, diversion

Reps. Bienvenido Abante (Manila’s 6th District) and Arlene Brosas (Gabriela party-list) described Duterte’s absence as an “insult” not just to lawmakers, but also to the entire Congress, which has the mandate to scrutinize budget proposals of all government agencies.

Abante, who chairs the House committee on human rights, refuted claims by his colleague 1-Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, who repeatedly invoked the “tradition” accorded by Congress to agencies like the OVP, which includes even the Office of the President.

Marcoleta moved to “terminate” the proceedings, which would mean approval of the OVP budget proposal, but was outvoted by his colleagues in the appropriations committee, whose presiding officer was senior vice chairperson and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo.

“This is an insult to Filipinos who are represented by all of us here. She may not like our questions, she may not like being questioned about OVP expenses, she may not like sitting with us here, but she is accountable to the people and she has this sworn duty to the Constitution,” Brosas said.

Her remarks were a play of Duterte’s responses to the Co panel in the last hearing, where the Vice President told Brosas’ colleague in the Makabayan bloc, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro: “She may not like my answer, she may not like the content of my answer, but I am answering the questions.”

The appropriations committee hearing nevertheless went on as scheduled despite Duterte’s absence, so as not to waste the time of COA and Department of Budget and Management officials who complied with the House’s directive to attend the briefing.

House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe observed that Duterte is “pulling out all the stops to shift the spotlight, but the Filipino people are smarter than that.”

“The real issue here is the glaring mismanagement of DepEd funds under her watch, where much-needed classrooms for our children were left unbuilt,” Dalipe said of Duterte, who used to be education secretary.

“Instead of focusing on delivering results, we’re now seeing what others suspect all along: that the Vice President is resorting to squid tactics – using smokescreens and diversionary moves to escape accountability,” Dalipe stressed.

He said funds for classroom construction were allocated fairly and transparently.

“But where are the classrooms?” he asked.

“It’s easy to point fingers, but much harder to face the reality that children still sit in overcrowded classrooms while excuses are being built instead of schools,” he added.

House Deputy Majority Leader and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre described Duterte’s absence as a “gross neglect of her constitutional duty to ensure accountability and transparency in the use of public funds.”

“The VP’s deliberate snub of the budget hearing shows a blatant disregard for her constitutional duty to answer to Congress and the Filipino people,” Acidre said.

Criminally liable

For Dalipe, Duterte can be held criminally liable for graft if she cannot justify P73.2 million in intelligence expenses disallowed by the COA, as well as a supposed P12.3 billion in similar “disallowances and suspensions” in the DepEd last year.

He also called on the COA to make a final report soon on the questionable disbursements, together with its recommendations on the OVP’s case.

Dalipe said the COA has been asking Duterte to return the P73.2 million disallowed from her spending of P125 million in intelligence funds that were used up in just 11 days, or P11.36 million a day.

In its audit of the P125-million intelligence fund of the OVP, the COA noted several irregularities, including late submission of liquidation reports, irregularities in notarization dates and the failure to submit required accomplishment reports to pertinent offices in a timely manner. — Delon Porcalla, Sheila Crisostomo, Emmanuel Tupas, Cecille Suerte Felipe