Sara Duterte 'ready' for zero budget, but lawmaker denies plans to defund OVP
MANILA, Philippines — The lawmaker sponsoring the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) proposed 2025 budget said on Wednesday, September 11, that the House appropriations committee does not plan on defunding the agency’s budget.
“We are not going to just ignore the budget that is required of the Office of the Vice President to have in order for the office itself and institution itself to operate,” Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong (Lanao del Sur, 1st District) said at a press conference.
Adiong explained that the OVP also has employees and assets to fund to maintain its operations.
“Handa kami, handa ako, sa Office of the Vice President na magtrabaho kahit walang budget. Maliit lang 'yung opisina namin. Maliit lang 'yung operations namin kaya kayang-kaya namin na magtrahabo kahit walang budget (We cannot disregard the fact that there are employees in every agency. Funds are also needed for the maintenance of their assets and office equipment),” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
This came after Vice President Sara Duterte said in a self-recorded interview that she has heard talks in the House to reduce her office’s budget to P1 or even P0. The OVP, she said, is ready to work with this amount because its operations are only minor.
“We are ready, I am ready, at the Office of the Vice President to work even without a budget. Our office is small. Our operations are small, so we are more than capable of working even without a budget,” Duterte said in Filipino.
Flagged by COA. The controversy stems from a Commission on Audit (COA) report at a congressional hearing on August 27 baring P73 million in inappropriate spending of the OVP's P125-million confidential and intelligence funds for 2022.
Rep. Jude Acidre (Tingog) stressed it is the vice president’s “responsibility and accountability” to explain the discrepancies the Commission on Audit (COA) found in the utilization and liquidation of the OVP’s funds.
“It is COA that is saying there is an error in the expenditure and is demanding a refund. Mind you, that’s not the starting point. That is already almost the endpoint of the process, as it involves a notice of disallowance. There are already repeated documents going back and forth,” he argued.
Accountability. A notice of disallowance is issued by COA when it disapproves a transaction, either wholly or partially. This occurs when when expense is deemed irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or illegal.
Before issuing the notice, COA typically sends an audit observation memorandum, or AOM, to the agency in question, giving it time to explain and prepare documents for submission.
RELATED: COA disallows nearly 60% of VP Sara's confidential expenditures in 2022
Accusations and counter-accusations
In the same taped interview, Duterte has accused House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other members of the House of conspiring against her. They have only recently questioned the OVP's spending as it proposed its budget for 2025.
But lawmakers maintain that they only received the 2023 COA reports and notice of disallowance in 2024, making this the appropriate time to raise questions.
RELATED: VP Sara accuses House leaders of meddling with DepEd classroom budget
“We couldn’t have asked this in 2023. So this is the right time to ask these questions,” Rep. Ramon Gutierrez (1-Rider) said.
The OVP is requesting a budget of P2.037 billion for 2025. During initial budget deliberations on August 27, Duterte refused to directly answer lawmakers' questions about confidential funds.
For the second round of budget hearings on September 10, Duterte and her officials were absent.
Duterte has instead released three separate self-recorded interviews to the media, sharing her claims about alleged House conspiracies against her.
As a result, the House Committee on Appropriations has deferred the OVP's proposed 2025 budget hearing for the second time, leaving the future of the office's funding uncertain.
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