MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte racked up P42.58 million in travel expenses in 2023 during her first full year in the position — more than double the Office of the Vice President's travel expenses the previous year, according to the Commission on Audit.
The OVP's foreign travel expenses saw the biggest jump, climbing by over 648% to P11.15 million from P1.49 million in 2022, according to the COA's annual audit report released Monday, December 1. These expenses funded daily allowances and travel costs for Duterte, her security detail and her office's other delegates during their overseas engagements.
The audit report did not list how many foreign trips the OVP had in 2023. But Duterte took at least three trips abroad in an official capacity in 2023, based on her office's press releases. Duterte visited Brunei and Singapore in June for education-related meetings as head of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (the Philippines was chairperson for that term). She also went to South Korea in September for a global summit on education.
The bulk of the OVP's travel expenses – P31.43 million or about 74% – went to domestic travel. The expenses covered not just Duterte's travel but also those of her staff, security detail and personnel from various divisions including the special projects division and satellite offices disaster operations center, among others.
The OVP's total travel expenses in 2023 marked a 111% increase from the P20.11 million spent in 2022 — a transition year split between former Vice President Leni Robredo and Duterte, who assumed office in June 2022.
Duterte was secretary of the Department of Education from the start of her term as vice president in 2022 to July this year. The audit report for DepEd in 2023 has yet to be released.
Confidential funds. The surge in travel expenses is not the only significant spending increase in Duterte's office. Based on the audit report, the OVP's confidential funds tripled to P375 million in 2023 from P125 million in 2022.
The funds, listed under Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), totaled P375,483,600 – with P375 million specifically marked as confidential expenses and P483,600 allocated for "extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses."
Overall, the OVP's MOOE in 2023 reached P1.98 billion, more than double the previous year's P724 million.
Who greenlighted the budget? The House of Representatives' appropriations committee approved the OVP's budget proposal for 2023 in under 10 minutes during its deliberations in 2022. Lawmakers said it was out of "parliamentary courtesy" to the vice president as the country's second-highest official.
House members would also repeat the same so-called tradition in 2023 despite attempts by lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc to ask Duterte questions about her use of secret funds.
RELATED: OVP budget escapes scrutiny after House panel swiftly ends deliberations
This year, House lawmakers decided to scrutinize the OVP budget's proposal at the committee level amid heated tensions between the Duterte camp and Marcos allies over Charter change and the president's approach to China. For the first time, the House appropriations committee had deferred the budget of the OVP twice and, eventually, decided to slash it from P2 billion to P733 million.