Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Wednesday, Sept. 27, thanked members of the House of Representatives, including the principal sponsor of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) proposed P2.3-billion budget for 2024, after heated budget deliberations.
(From left, 1st row) OVP budget sponsor and Davao de Oro Rep. Ma. Carmen Zamora and Vice President Sara Duterte (Screenshot from House of Representatives/ Facebook)
The official attended the budget deliberations at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on Wednesday, a day after she canceled a scheduled deliberation on Tuesday, Sept. 26, due to conflict of schedule despite the meeting set weeks ago.
In a statement, the OVP expressed its “gratitude to the leaders and members of the House of Representatives for the budget deliberations.”
Duterte’s office thanked Davao de Oro 1st District Rep. Ma. Carmen Zamora for being the lead sponsor of the proposed budget and for answering questions raised by the Makabayan bloc against the OVP.
“We thank Rep. Maricar Zamora of Davao de Oro Province for representing the OVP as the lead budget sponsor — upholding the OVP’s mandate to serve the Filipinos and the country as the second-highest office of the land,” it said.
The OVP maintained, in the statement, that it is “committed to serve and bring programs and projects with meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of Filipinos in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.”
The OVP’s budget was highly scrutinized during the budget deliberations due to it making headlines for weeks, following the revelation of ACT Party-list Rep. France Castro that the OVP spent P125 million in confidential funds in December 2022.
The source of the confidential funds was further put into question after it was revealed that the Office of the President (OP) transferred the funds into a non-existing line item under the 2022 budget of former vice president Leni Robredo.
On Wednesday, Zamora confirmed that the money was spent in 19 days, and not 11 days as earlier said by Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo.
It was the Commission on Audit (COA) that initially disclosed that the OVP spent P125 million in 11 days in December of last year.
During the hearing, Castro, together with Reps. Raoul Manuel of Kabataan Party List, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Party List, as well as Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman took turns in interrogating the OVP.