Lawmaker stresses irregularities in OVP’s request for confidential funds, cites 2022 letter

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Tuesday scored the “flawed” manner in which the Office of the Vice President requested additional funds in 2022, this time pointing out specific wordings in the OVP’s letter request to the Department of Budget and Management allegedly proving the adjustment was done through augmentation.

Citing contents of the OVP’s letter to the DBM in August 2022 — which the Office of the President sent to the House during plenary deliberations for its proposed 2024 budget — Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay, 1st District) said that Vice President Sara Duterte had committed prohibited acts in requesting P403 million additional funds.

The letter also shows Duterte originally requested P250 million in confidential funds — double of what the OVP received in 2022.

Lagman said that the letter shows the OVP “requested for the release of funds by augmentation and for confidential funds, both of which are prohibited.”

Duterte has repeatedly refused to detail how the OVP acquired P125 million in confidential funds in 2022 even if this was not included in the 2022 General Appropriations Act, resorting instead to name-calling her critics and relying on allies to publicly come to her defense.

From panel deliberations to plenary debates, Makabayan lawmakers have also repeatedly asked for clarity about the nature of the fund transfer. Duterte accused the Makabayan bloc of a “rabid vilification” of the OVP after Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) scored Duterte for allowing the House appropriations panel to end the budget hearing of the OVP early out of parliamentary courtesy.

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‘Augmentation’

In a letter addressed to DBM Chief Amenah