Cuts eyed in 2025 OVP budget; Sara snubs House hearing

LAWMAKERS from the House of Representatives are eyeing significant cuts in the proposed P2.037 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) next year after Vice President Sara Duterte snubbed the resumption of the budget hearing yesterday.

The House Committee on Appropriations deferred the termination of the OVP budget deliberations for the second time.

Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol), committee chairperson, vowed to recommend that funds for the OVP’s social services be transferred to line agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Education.

Co cited the alleged poor track record of the Vice President in handling public funds, such as the handling of the P125 million confidential funds (CF) of the OVP that was spent in just 11 days in 2022, and the more than P12 billion expenditures of the Department of Education (DepEd), which she used to head as secretary, that were either suspended or disallowed by the Commission on Audit in its 2023 annual report.

“Amid all these funds misuse and apparent corruption, should we still entrust her with another P2 billion in 2025?” Co asked the panel. “Now, should we give her P2 billion that she claims the OVP will use to help the poor? We should give this instead to the right agency. We will not allow even a single peso to again be squandered.”

Not even a single representative from the OVP attended yesterday’s hearing, but in a letter to Speaker Martin Romualdez dated September 10, Duterte said the OVP has already “submitted all necessary documentation to the House of Representatives – Committee on Appropriations, including a detailed presentation on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025.”

“I have also articulated my position on the issues outlined in my opening statement during the previous hearing on 27 August 2024. We defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee regarding our budget proposal for the upcoming year,” the Vice President said.

Tensions flared during the deliberations on the OVP’s proposed budget on August 27 after Duterte stonewalled questions on the notice of disallowance that the Commission on Audit (COA) has issued to the OVP for its