Vice President Sara Duterte’s snub of the ongoing Congressional hearings on her office’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025 is a clear manifestation of her acquired distaste and snobbery of the legislative branch and the House’s dangling of its legitimate “power of the purse.”
People are being treated to a war of wits in this power play but ultimately it is the people that should decide– via their vote– if she or the so-called representatives deserve to be voted upon in the midterm election next year and the national election in 2028.
Surely, Sara would take advantage of this situation to look like an underdog and since Filipinos love to vote for underdogs, she just might get her ambition of being the next president of the Republic.
In which case, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez must tread carefully and not make her look like the underdog here.
The first and last hearing she attended, where she refused to share details of how she spent all the monies given her, she became a laughing stock with her trademark “shemenet” comment (that went viral) in her interviews after the hearing.
When Sara gave a letter to Romualdez explaining why she won’t attend the appropriations committee hearing, she chose her words well, thus: “We defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee regarding our budget proposal for the upcoming year.”
Not one official of the OVP attended the said hearing, which enraged the legislators even more.
Fund transfer
For this, Ako Bicol Partylist Representative Elizaldy Co, chair of the appropriations committee, said the panel will recommend that some OVP funds for social services be transferred to line agencies, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Education (DepEd), where the Vice President once served as Secretary.
Citing the poor track record of the Vice President in handling public funds, as seen in the P125-million confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), Co reconsidered whether to grant the OVP P2 billion for next year, Business World reported.
“Amid all these funds misuse and apparent corruption, should we still entrust her with another P2 billion in 2025?” he said in a statement.
“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.”
Reduced budget
Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel urged the reduction of OVP’s budget to P128 million from P2 billion, citing redundancies in its proposed spending plan with other government agencies.
Teddy Casiño, chair of political group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, sazid that “almost 80 percent of the OVP’s budget is for projects that are not under the purview of the office.”
The appropriations committee, which oversees government’s spending, last Aug. 27 questioned Duterte on the P73.3 million of the P125-million OVP CIF in 2022, flagged by COA due to the lack of documents supporting the spending. COA said OVP spent the P125 million in 11 days, which she refused to answer.
Duterte’s nemesis, Deputy Minority Leader Partylist Rep. France Castro fumed: “Even though we gave the Office of the Vice President a second chance… to explain the budget… she decided to boycott us. I don’t recall any government agency or executive branch ever boycotting Congress during budget hearings and deliberations.”
The absence of OVP officials from the hearing was deemed as “unconstitutional” anew by Manila Representative Bienvenido Abante, Jr., asserting Congress’ power of the purse.
Sagip Partylist Representative Rodante Marcoleta asked the panel to give parliamentary courtesy to the VP, a congressional privilege traditionally extended to the Office of the President and the OVP, and moved for the termination of proceedings, which was voted down by 45 panel members.
In an interview, Ateneo political science lecturer, Hansley Juliano said “accountability, more than parliamentary courtesy, takes priority.The best recourse they have is to void or decide on their own what the appropriate budget for the OVP will be if Duterte-Carpio will not cooperate,” he said.
House Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Representative Zia Alonto Adiong, OVP’s budget sponsor, said discussions would now move to the plenary, where the 300-strong House led by the speaker could move to slash the OVP’s social services budget and transfer it to line agencies.
In fact, Representative Co himself vowed to recommend it, pointing out that “Duterte could no longer be entrusted with public funds,” the Inquirer reported.
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