In less than 10 minutes, the Senate adopted the 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
No senator came forward to interpellate and raise questions pertaining to the P733-million budget proposed by the Senate finance committee chaired by Senator Grace Poe.
OVP's budget was supposed to be adopted much earlier through the motion of Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa but he later withdrew it to make way for the manifestation of Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go.
Go appealed to his colleagues to provide additional funds or restore the amount that had been slashed from the OVP's budget.
To recall, the House of Representatives slashed P1.3 billion from the OVP's proposed 2025 budget in its version of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). This was retained by the Senate.
"We reached out several times to the Office of the Vice President requesting them to submit documents to clarify issues regarding their budget but they have not submitted as of today. So, we decided to retain the GAB amount pending submission and review of these documents,” Poe said.
“While we cannot account for movements in the figures on an apples-to-apples basis, we can say that we retained the original budget for the relevant item in DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) while we increased further the item under the DOH (Department of Health) budget,” she said.
She took note of Go's manifestation and said that he could introduce the amendments he likes at the proper time.
In a chance interview, Vice President Sara Duterte said they no longer attended the House's plenary deliberations on the OVP budget since they would be asking the same questions.
She added that the OVP personnel are hopeful that their office's budget would be increased.
"Kung mababalik siya malaking bagay siya dahil hindi namin hihindian yung mga lalapit sa opisina namin para humingi ng tulong particularly yung medical and burial assistance (If it's returned, it would be a huge thing for us because we wouldn't need to reject those who approach our office seeking help, especially those who need medical and burial assistance)," she said.
Meanwhile, the Office of the President was also immediately adopted with no questions asked through the motion of Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino.
“Upon consultation with the chairperson of the committee on finance as well as our Minority Leader, Senator Koko Pimentel, I move that we consider and adopt for consideration of the Senate and approval, the budget of the OP, the president’s offices, and the presidential management staff,” said Tolentino.