The Senate has retained the proposed P733-million budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) that the House of Representatives earlier approved in its version of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, confirmed the panel’s decision on Tuesday, November 5 before sponsoring the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget for 2025.
“Yes. 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.
The House Committee on Appropriations had earlier recommended reducing the OVP’s proposed budget due to vice president Sara Duterte’s refusal to answer lawmakers’ questions on how the OVP utilized the funds, including the office’s confidential funds.
The House also opted to reduce the OVP’s budget to avoid redundancy in social service programs, but Speaker Martin Romualdez assured that the OVP can still refer individuals seeking assistance to the DSWD and DOH.
The vice president, however, scored such scrutiny if the OVP’s budget saying it is a dry run for an impeachment case against her.