MANILA, Philippines — After skipping the hearings of the House of Representatives on the proposed budget for 2025 of her office, Vice President Sara Duterte said she would attend the Senate’s deliberations.
“I’ve already said before why we no longer will participate in the budget deliberations of OVP at the House of Representatives, because I’ve said only two people decide there – Congressman (Zaldy) Co and Congressman Martin Romualdez,” Duterte said.
Earlier, she accused Co, chairman of the House appropriations committee, and Speaker Romualdez of meddling in the Department of Education (DepEd)’s classroom budget for the past two years – which she said demonstrates their power to “hijack” taxpayers’ money.
Due to Duterte’s failure to defend and justify previous spending of the OVP and DepEd when she was still its secretary, House members are proposing to slash OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion 2025 budget to P733.19 million, down by 65 percent or P1.3 billion.
Duterte said she does not expect any increase to the OVP’s approved budget despite her forthcoming presence at the Senate deliberations, but reiterated how she was willing to work with whatever’s left of their proposed budget for next year.
“With the P700 million, we will see what’s been left and we will work around that budget of the OVP, but definitely, we will continue with whatever budget we have,” she added.
Duterte has decided to skip the House probe into the OVP’s alleged misuse of public funds, saying the proceedings were “unnecessary” due to the “unsubstantiated allegations” levied against her.
In a letter dated Sept. 23, Duterte told the House committee on good government and public accountability, that no representatives of her office would attend the second day of the committee’s probe into the OVP’s budget spending on Wednesday.
Duterte said the reason was that the inquiry was based on baseless accusations made by Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano in a privilege speech, where he questioned her office for its alleged inefficient budget use since 2023.
“Such claims can be easily verified through the accomplishment reports submitted by the OVP to support its 2025 budget proposal, and confirmed through various news reports, COA reports and postings on various social media platforms. Clearly, the conduct of a formal inquiry or hearing on the matter is unnecessary,” Duterte wrote.
If there was a need for a formal inquiry, Duterte said lawmakers of the committee should at least present a draft house bill “to ensure that the discussions would be germane to the subject matter.”
“In fact, the invitation of the committee itself lacks any clear legislative objective or contemplated legislation that is expected as an outcome of the deliberations,” she added.
‘I won’t resign’
Duterte on Wednesday said she would not yield to calls for her resignation after skipping House budget deliberations, saying that she answers only to the 32 million Filipinos who voted for her and not to lawmakers.
“I will not answer to the ‘Young Guns’ because I need to answer to the 32 million people who voted for me. Not just to two people. I will not leave because people put me here… for the country,” Duterte said.
She was referring to the “Young Guns” bloc in the House composed of Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Adiong, La Union 1st district Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega, Zambales 1st district Rep. Jefferson Khonghun and Isabela 6th district Rep. Faustino Dy.
Speaker Romualdez said on Wednesday he respects the opinion of some House members who recently urged Duterte to step down sue to her decision to skip budget hearings of her agency.
“All congressmen have ideas, they have their own opinions,” Romualdez said at a press conference after attending the sixth Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council meeting at Malacañang.
Romualdez said the House would come up with a resolution on the Vice President’s absence in the House budget deliberations.
“Before tonight we will come into a resolution and that would be the act of the plenary so instead of listening to individual opinions or comments, as you know in Congress we act as a consensus,” Romualdez said at the press conference at Malacañang with Senate President Francis Escudero.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit (COA) confirmed during the House probe yesterday that the P125-million confidential funds received by Duterte in December 2022 has been liquidated, but also said it is beyond her mandate to be given such a budget.
According to Gloria Camora of the COA-Intelligence and Confidential Audit Office, documents showed that the OVP was able to submit a liquidation of the secret funds which were spent in only 11 days or from Dec. 20 to Dec. 31, 2022.
But upon questioning of Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, Camora said they issued a “notice of disallowance” covering P73 million of the P125 million because the documents submitted by OVP were insufficient.
According to Camora, the P125 million includes funding for surveillance operations in 132 areas. COA audit team leader Fahad Bin Abdul Malik Tomawis said tasks related to peace and order and national security are beyond the mandate of OVP.
Tomawis said the OVP is tasked to perform “executive, ceremonial and advocacy functions, collaborating with stakeholders and organization in both public and private sectors to develop and promote programs that uplift the lives of the Filipino people.”
The Vice President dispelled speculations that she would be running the campaign of a senatorial slate to rival that of President Marcos, saying she was preoccupied with defending the OVP at the moment.
While she remains focused on dealing with public scrutiny over her office’s spending and other controversies, Duterte has not crossed out the possibility of involving herself in the campaign for the 2025 polls.
“For now, I don’t have a Senate slate because as I said, I was focused on defending the OVP. But the campaign’s still a long way from now… in February,” she told reporters.
Earlier this year, Duterte announced that her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and her two brothers Sebastian and Paolo will run for the Senate. The Duterte patriarch, however, denied this.
Forced to retire
A former undersecretary who was appointed alongside Duterte in the DepEd in 2022 testified before the House committee on good government and public accountability, chaired by Manila3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, that she was forced to retire in October 2023 for adhering to strict procurement rules.
The Chua panel is investigating, in aid of legislation, the alleged misuse of the OVP’s multimillion-peso fund from 2022 to 2024 when Vice President Duterte served as the secretary.
Former DepEd undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado told the House panel that she was appointed as head of the procurement entity (HOPE) in February 2023, where she was given P450,000 for nine months, or P50,000 monthly until September.
Mercado said she never opened the envelopes because she felt “uncomfortable.” Instead, she put them in a pouch which she left in her office, and only discovered the contents when she retired. Upon receiving advice, she donated the money to a non-governmental organization. She submitted the envelopes and the donation receipt to the committee as evidence.
Mercado narrated that when she refused to toe the official DepEd line, as per instructions of Duterte’s trusted aide, lawyer Reynold Munsayac, for them to discuss among themselves the bidding failure of the agency’s computerization program, she was suddenly asked to resign in October of the same year. – Sheila Crisostomo, Emmanuel Tupas, Delon Porcalla, Helen Flores