EDITORIAL — No more free pass

Congressmen promised close scrutiny of  “every peso spent and not spent” in the P2-billion budget proposed by the Office of the Vice President for 2025, vowing that Vice President Sara Duterte would “no longer be given a free pass.” This was shortly after Duterte lamented in an open letter that the country is “being led by leaders with no honor.”

The lawmakers are delivering on their promise, especially after Duterte locked horns last month with several members of the House appropriations committee and even demanded the replacement of the panel’s chairperson. And it’s not just at the House of Representatives. Duterte first tangled with lawmakers at the Senate, throwing a fit after being questioned about her proposal for P10 million to produce a children’s book that she authored and intended to distribute to public schools “for free” at taxpayers’ expense.

Now the Department of Education under her watch is being taken to task for P5.6 billion in school supplemental feeding items that supposedly went to waste. Lawmakers are also looking into possible rigging of the bidding for laptops procured by the DepEd, which might have cost taxpayers about P1.6 billion.

The other week, it was also disclosed that the Commission on Audit had issued a notice of disallowance covering the utilization of P73 million of the P125 million in confidential funds allotted to the Office of the Vice President. The P73 million was spent ostensibly for “rewards” mostly in the form of goods and even medicines. The OVP reportedly spent the entire P125 million in just 11 days in December 2022.

Duterte has said the issues raised over her utilization of secret funds were part of “unending political attacks” that were meant “to mask the real problem of the country right now.” Since the officials scrutinizing the budget proposals are politicians, their statements can always be described as political. It’s true, however, that Duterte, who resigned this year as DepEd secretary, found her office funding coming under tight scrutiny after her falling out with her erstwhile partners in the UniTeam.

Whether the scrutiny is political or not, transparency and public accountability are required in government service, particularly in the utilization of people’s money. No one is above the laws and regulations promoting good governance. It would be good for the Vice President to cooperate in this effort. It would be even better if lawmakers would subject the budget proposals of all other government agencies to the same minute scrutiny, giving no one special treatment or a free pass.