The Office of the Vice President (OVP) said it will reach out to Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, the designated sponsor of the OVP proposed budget at the House of Representatives, before the rescheduled budget hearing of the OVP next month.
(From left) Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong and Vice President Sara Duterte (Photos from Rep. Adiong's and VP Duterte's Facebook page)
Vice presidential spokesperson Michael Poa confirmed that a meeting will take place between their two offices.
“The OVP will be contacting Cong Adiong’s Office as agreed during a brief conversation between Cong Adiong and the VP right after the budget hearing yesterday,” he told reporters on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
This was his answer when asked about Adiong’s remark that his staff would reach out to the OVP to discuss the programs that would be funded so he could properly defend the proposed OVP budget in the plenary.
Poa, however, did not say when the meeting will take place.
“Kung kailan ang magiging pag-uusap between the OVP and Cong Adiong’s office wala pa po tayong maisasagot sa ngayon (As to when the meeting will be between the OVP and Cong Adiong’s office, we do not have an answer to that yet),” he added.
In a rare move, the House of Representatives deferred the approval of the OVP’s proposed P2.037-billion budget for 2025 after Vice President Sara Duterte personally appeared during the Aug. 27 budget hearing.
This meant that it wouldn’t be elevated to the plenary yet.
The House appropriations committee scheduled another round of deliberations for the OVP on Sept. 10.
Meanwhile, Duterte argued that no government agency has a monopoly on providing services to Filipinos.
“On the matter of OVP projects being similar to the mandate of other government offices, there is certainly no agency that has a monopoly of government services,” she said during her opening remarks before members of the House panel.
The Vice President’s statement came amid calls from some lawmakers to realign some of the funds—supposedly allotted to OVP projects—to other line agencies with similar functions.
In the same speech, the official lamented that many of the OVP’s major projects, such as a vice-presidential museum and an OVP permanent office, may not be possible anymore because of the country’s political climate.