Sara: House leaders conspired vs my CF

VICE President Sara Duterte has claimed that Speaker Martin Romualdez, House Appropriations Panel chairman and Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co, and the Makabayan Bloc conspired to remove her confidential funds (CF) in the last budget hearing.

In the last part of her interview that was provided by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to members of the media, Duterte claimed that in September 2023, the Makabayan bloc planned to meet with Romualdez to discuss the removal of her confidential funds.

She said that after the Romualdez-Makabayan meeting, a lawmaker-friend approached her, claiming that he was approached by Representative Co to ask if the VP would get mad if her proposed confidential funds were removed.

Vice President Sara Duterte Photo from Inday Sara Duterte FB page

«My lawmaker-friend replied to Co, 'Inday Sara does not care about money; she will work whatever the budget because she knows government funds are limited. So, she will just work.' Co repeated the question, 'Would Sara get angry?' My friend said, 'Nope,'» VP Sara said.

She said that while they defended the use of the confidential funds during the budget briefing of the OVP at the House plenary, Co said two hours later that there was a «unanimous decision» by the House leaders led by Romualdez to remove the confidential funds.

«And to not make it look like they were attacking me, they also removed the confidential funds of other departments. So you'll see that the Makabayan Bloc whispered to Martin Romualdez, and because the speaker does not want to be attacked, and because he wants to be supported by the Makabayan bloc and the NPA (New People's Army), he listened, and he removed the budget,» Duterte said.

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She said that the removal of the confidential funds, as well as the release of an audit memorandum of the Commission on Audit (CoA), was a confirmation of the possible «attack» on the OVP through the budget.

Because of this, Sara said, both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) did not use its allocated confidential funds, thinking she would be attacked using these funds.

She claimed that the plan was proven during the August 27 budget hearing, where most of the