Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

Makabayan solons ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro and Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas couldn't hide their displeasure on Tuesday, Sept. 10 after Vice President Sara Duterte failed to show up at the resumption of the budget hearing of the Office of the Vice President (OVP). 

In fact, none of the OVP family attended the budget hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations, where the agency was the only one scheduled for deliberation. This blatant non-attendance was unprecedented in the budget hearings. 

Instead of showing up, Vice President Duterte--who was criticized for her bossy and aggressive behavior during the OVP's initial budget hearing last Aug.27--wrote House Speaker Martin Romualdez a letter dated Sept. 10 wherein she basically told the chamber to do what it wants to do with the OVP budget. 

"So ang problema dito no, talagang bratinella, bratinella to the max, no, na ayaw na ngang matanong, umiiwas sa mga tanong,," Castro said of the second highest-ranking official of the land. 

(So the problem here is the bratinella attitude, bratinella to the max, she doesn't want to be asked, she is avoiding the questions.) 

"Pasensya na po ang taumbayan, binoycott tayo ng Vice President (To the people, sorry, the Vice President boycotted us)," said the deputy minority leader.  

"Wala pako natatandaan no ahensya ng gobyerno o executive branch na binoycott ang Kongreso dito sa budget hearing and deliberation...Ano to no, betrayal of her oath of office," Castro said. 

(I don't remember any agency of government or executive branch that boycotted Congress her in the budget hearing and deliberation...This is a betrayal of her oath of office.) 

None of the House members moved to strike out from the record any of Castro's utterances, including the word "bratinella". 

'She may not' meme 

Brosas called the Vice President's decision to skip the budget hearing Tuesday "an insult to the Filipino people and their representatives in Congress". 

"She may not like our questions last hearing, Madam Chair. She may not like being questioned about the OVP expenses, she may not like sitting with us here in the House. But Madam Chair, she is accountable to the people and she has the sworn duty to he Constitution, being the head of the agency, to be here," Brosas said, obviously alluding to the 'shimenet' meme of the Vice President thar resulted from her tact during the previous hearing. 

"Ang hiling natin, makapagpaliwanag ng accountability...kasi marami pa po tayong tanong kaugnay dito," said the assistant minority leader. 

READ THIS:

https://mb.com.ph/2024/9/3/hindi-nagpaka-pusit-angara-praised-for-exemplary-conduct-in-dep-ed-budget-hearing

(Our wish is, to give clarity on accountability...because we still have a lot of questions about this.) 

In her letter to Romualdez, Vice President Duterte insisted that the "[OVP] has submitted all necessary documents to the House of Representatives--Committee on Appropriations, including a detailed presentation on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025.". 

"We defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee regarding our budget proposed for the upcoming year," she said.

The budget hearing proceed, but with House members directing their questions instead to resource persons from the Commission on Audit (COA). The queries centered on the OVP's usage of funds for its social services projects.