Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III questioned the proposed 2023 P2.3 billion budget for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) which is three times more than the 2022 budget of the previous administration.
Pimentel then sought to have this amount decreased, including the reduction or deletion of the P500 million confidential fund of the Office of the Vice President, in today’s deliberations on the proposed 2023 P5.2 trillion national budget at the Senate floor.
But Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, refused.
He questioned Pimentel’s position, saying ‘’we never decreased the budget of the OVP, it will never happen and I hope this won’t take place under my watch.’’
Pimentel said the budget for the Office of the Vice President under then Vice President Lent Robredo in 2022 was P709 million but the Office of the Vice President under Vice President Sara Détente for 2023 is asking for P2.3 billion.
He also sought the deletion of the billions of pesos of intelligence funds for the Office of President Marcos.
Pimentel said he still maintains that under the definition of confidential funds crafted by Congress, the OVP should not be given confidential funds.
Senator Christopher ‘’Bong’’ Go stood up to express his support for the proposed P2.3 billion budget for the OVP, saying the Vice President had openly stated that she fully supports the Marcos administration.
Then Senator Ferdinand ‘’Bongbong’’ R. Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte ran together for the presidency and vice presidency with both candidates getting historic high votes. Sara had 32.2 million votes, higher than the President’s.
‘’She (Sara) needs our support,’’ Go added.
After the OVP budget was deemed submitted, Presiding Officer Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda expressed her appreciation at the presence of Vice President Sara Duterte who appeared pleased by the turn of events.
The budget version of the Senate and the budget version of the House of Representatives would go through the bicameral conference committee meeting progress where the conflicting versions of the two legislative chambers are fine-tuned through compromises.
During the debate, Pimentel observed that the OVP’s budget passed though the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
But there is a constitutional body, the Commission on Audit (COA) that audits the OVP’s expenditure, he added.
The OVP’s gargantuan budget has 11 major programs, including the need to put up seven satellite offices.
At P150 million for each satellite office to be rented, taxpayers will sought up a total of P1.05 billion for such offices.
Angara maintained that Duterte’s mandate is to deliver services to the people, ‘’just like us senators’’ who are approached by citizens for their needs such as medical, educational, financial assistance, among others.
He rejected Pimentel’s statement that the proposed P500-million confidential funds for the OVP should be transferred and used to pay for expenses in the franking privileges of the Philippine Postal Office (PhilPost).
Angara said they could look for other sources of funds for PhilPost because ‘’we want her to succeed.’’