Vice President Sara Duterte declined once again to defend the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) proposed P2.037-billion budget for 2025, as she did not attend the second budget hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Vice President Sara Duterte (Photo from Inday Sara Duterte Facebook page)
This was confirmed by a statement from the OVP, saying “The Office of the Vice President would like to inform the public that it will not be attending the Committee on Appropriations hearing on the proposed OVP Budget for FY 2025 scheduled for today.”
Duterte also sent a letter addressed to House Speaker Martin Romualdez and forwarded to House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Ako-Bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co, saying she was leaving the approval of the OVP’s budget to the “discretion” of the committee.
“We defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee regarding our budget proposal for the upcoming year,” she wrote.
The Vice President argued that her office has already submitted the necessary documents about its proposed budget, and that she, too, has presented her position in her opening remarks during the first hearing last Aug. 27.
“The Office of the Vice President has submitted all necessary documentation to the House of Representatives - Committee on Appropriations, including a detailed presentation on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025,” Duterte said.
“I have also articulated my position on the issues outlined in my opening statement during the previous hearing on 27 August 2024,” she added.
The House panel, in a rare move, deferred the approval of the OVP’s proposed 2025 budget after Duterte’s refusal to answer questions from lawmakers during the Aug. 27 hearing.
This was a stark contrast to how the committee approved swiftly the official’s 2023 and 2024 proposed budgets, which even included the controversial confidential funds.
But since then, Duterte had a falling out with the Marcos-Romualdez clan despite the House Speaker serving as her campaign manager and President Marcos her running mate in the UniTeam tandem of the 2022 elections.