After Vice President Sara Duterte was lauded for giving up on pursuing the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) request for its P500 million confidential funds, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said that the possibility of it being restored remains.
Pimentel told reporters on Friday, Nov. 10 that it could be restored along with the Department of Education's (DepEd) confidential funds during the bicameral committee discussion of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
"Yan ang katotohanan na hindi maganda sa bicam na parang anything goes po doon (That's the truth which is not good in the bicam which is like anything can happen there)," he explained.
"But theoretically speaking the bicam has the power to introduce anything," he added.
Pimentel also mentioned that the bicameral report is given back to the plenary of both the upper and lower chambers and once it gets ratified, anything that was proposed there will get approved.
"Theoretically speaking puwede marestore kaya siguro yung mga interesado sa issue na nagbabantay, hanggang dulo ang pagbabantay. Yung bicam report dapat bantayan (Theoretically speaking it can be restored so those interested in it that are monitoring should be see it to the end. They should look at the bicam report)," he added.
On Thursday, Nov. 9, Senate Committee on Finance chief Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara read a statement during the plenary deliberations of OVP's proposed P1.874 billion budget stating that the agency will no longer pursue its request for confidential funds.
It can be recalled that the OVP was stripped of its confidential funds under the P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget for 2024 of the House of Representatives (HOR). Also stripped were the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Should anyone push for it, Pimentel said he would argue that the OVP itself manifested that it no longer wants it so there would be no reason to give it funds.
"It would be a waste of time to force an agency to receive a funding na ayaw nila (that they don't want)," he said.
"Magdebate pa ba tayo ng oras oras kung bibigyan ang isang ahensya ng isang halagang sinabi niyang di ko kailangan? (Will we still debate for hours if we will provide an agency an amount they said that they don't need?). Yan yung basic appeal ko if ever may magpupush yan ang aking sasabihin (That will be my basic appeal if ever someone pushes for it that is what I would say). It is pointless exercise," he added.