Sara: I can work with zero budget

MANILA, Philippines —  Claiming alleged efforts in Congress to strip her office of funding, Vice President Sara Duterte said she could still function “even without a budget.”

Duterte said she was aware of talks to defund the Office of the Vice President following her clash with lawmakers over the OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion budget for 2025 and her accusations against Speaker Martin Romualdez and House appropriations committee chairman Rep. Zaldy Co that they have hijacked control of taxpayers’ money.

“Our office is small. Our operations are small so we can afford to work even without a budget. We know that’s all part of the attack. So we will continue to do what we need to do for the people,” Duterte said in a taped interview sent to reporters yesterday.

After clashing with lawmakers two weeks ago over budget mismanagement, Duterte and officials of the OVP skipped Tuesday’s scheduled budget deliberations before the House of Representatives’ appropriations committee. Instead, her office released a taped interview where she accused Romualdez and Co of hijacking billions in additional funds meant to build and repair classrooms.

The Vice President said neither she nor officials of the OVP attended the hearing as she was expecting a “scripted” political sideshow attack on her person.

“During the budget hearing last Aug. 27, you could see they have prepared an audiovisual presentation. They also prepared a script to take cues from,” she said.

“We can see the cues of ‘Let’s stick to our plan. Let’s attack her. Let’s make it about confidential funds instead of the OVP’s 2025 budget proposal,’” she added.

Meanwhile, Duterte also accused House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of orchestrating an impeachment plot against her.

“Talks of impeaching me are not new. If we go back to last year, France Castro spoke in November 2023, she said, ‘Oh, we are talking about the impeachment of Inday Sara.’ And she gave grounds for them to file an impeachment. That’s why the impeachment is being talked about openly in the House of Representatives. And France Castro is always there in the middle in the matter of impeachment with me,” she said.

House lawmakers said the P125-million