The two Houses of Congress appear headed on a collision course over the 2025 budget allocation for the Office of Vice President (OVP) Sara Duterte-Carpio.
In an unprecedented move, the House of Representatives appropriations body slashed the proposed budget for OVP by 64 percent, from PHP2.03-billion to just PHP733 million.
Members of the Upper House, however, are gearing for a clash with their counterparts in the Lower Chamber.
“How will the OVP function if you reduce their budget,” asked Senate president pro-tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, a staunch ally of Duterte-Carpio. “Remember, she is the second highest official of the country and she deserves some respect and dignity,” he added.
Sen. Joel Villanueva, another ally of the Vice-president, had a stronger reaction. “I cannot stomach (the move) to slash the OVP’s budget by more than half,” Villanueva was quoted to have said. He and Estrada vowed to work for the restoration of the budget for the Vice-president and daughter of former president Rodrigo.
The House committee recommendation, at this writing, goes to the plenary where there has been strong desire to cut the OVP budget.
“Let it also be known that this House favors no one,” said House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the first cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. who had a falling out with Vice-president Duterte last June.
“We do not bend to pressure or special interests. We remain vigilant in upholding the principles of good governance and fiscal responsibility,” the Speaker also said in his speech that marked the start of plenary debates for the 2025 national budget that sums up to a record PHP6.35-trillion.
The House Committee on Appropriations said that the PHP1.29-billion taken out from the OVP allocation will be given to the Social Welfare and Health departments.
“There are redundant social programs that are being implemented (by the OVP) even though similar programs already exist within National Government agencies, particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Health,” explained Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, a senior vice-chairperson of the appropriations body.
Still, the Vice-president remains defiant in the face of the massive budget cut, saying her office could function “even without a budget.”
“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,” said Duterte-Carpio in a taped message to the media even before the House committee recommendation came out.
At the start of the budget committee hearings, the Vice-president instantly clashed with lawmakers. She insisted there was an orchestrated effort in Congress to malign her person.
Duterte-Carpio observed that lawmakers were maliciously reviving the controversy over the 2022 spending of confidential funds by the OVP even if the subject matter on the table was already the 2025 budget.
In her final chance to defend her budget at the committee level days later, Duterte-Carpio was a no-show. Instead, the OVP released a taped interview where she accused Speaker Romualdez and Rep. Zeldy Co, the appropriations committee chair, of hijacking billions in additional funds meant to build and repair classrooms.
The Speaker, without mentioning names, subsequently told House members to be wary of “the reality that there are those who seek to undermine our work, critics who speak of accountability while conveniently ignoring their own misuse of public funds.”
Rep. Co was blunt in his reaction to the Vice-president’s tirade. “Before making accusations against others, she should answer the people’s questions: Where did the public funds go?” Rep. Co stated as he challenged the Vice-president that it would be better for her to first answer the questions of Congress and the Commission on Audit (COA) on how she spent PHP125 million in confidential and intelligence funds in just 11 days of 2022.
Rep. Co argued that it was not possible for him as appropriations chair to manipulate the national budget since the committee consists of 139 members and 36 vice-chairpersons.
“The national budget is also reviewed by 24 senators and then by the Bicameral Conference Committee, which includes 30 members from both the Senate and Congress,” he asserted. “So, how can just two people control the national budget when it goes through so many layers of scrutiny?”
