Vice President Sara Duterte (left), Leni Robredo (MANILA BULLETIN)

Members of the House Committee on Appropriations learned in a budget hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 10 that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent P4.4 million on monthly rent in 2023, particularly with its 10 satellite offices. 

It was the same hearing that Vice President Sara Duterte and the rest of the OVP snubbed, forcing the attending congressmen to instead ask questions to the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding the OVP's expenditures. 

House Assistant Minority Leader 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez brought up the matter on the OVP's rent expenses. 

According to COA representative Fajad Tomawis, the OVP established seven satellite offices in 2022, and another three last year, for a total of 10. 

Tomawis bared during Gutierrez's interpellation that the OVP spent P29.8 million in rent payments in 2022. The rent payments nearly doubled to P53.4 million in 2023. 

Since nobody from the OVP attended the hearing to make any response, Gutierrez was forced to cut his interpellation short. 

Zambales 2nd district Rep. Doris Maniquiz later hinted at a problem of redundancy as she told the committee that the services offered by the OVP satellite offices were similar to those provided by the regional offices of various departments. 

“Nakikita natin na yung mga services na ino-offer ng mga extension offices tsaka satellite offices ay binibigay din naman po ng regional offices ng mga line agencies katulad ng DSWD, DOH, DOLE, TESDA lahat po yun. Hindi po ba dapat natin ma-disallow yung mga ganun na duplication lang?” she asked COA. 

(We see that the services being offered by the extension offices and satellite offices are also being given by the regional offices of line agencies like the DSWD, DOH, DOLE, TESDA, all of them. Shouldn't we disallow this kind of duplication?) 

“Doon po sa list ng mga properties na P53 million ay lumalabas po yun P4.4 million per month,” noted Maniquiz. 

(On the list of properties that are P53 million, it appears that the monthly cost is P4.4 million.) 

Quezon City 3rd district Rep. Farnz Pumaren then interjected to give a point of reference for the figure by citing Vice President Duterte's immediate predecessor, Leni Robredo. 

“With regards to VP Leni (Robredo) her lease contract, I was the one who drafted the contract, her monthly rental is P308,700 plus 12 percent so that’s roughly about P345,744 and that’s for 5,100 square meters property,” Pumaren said. 

“So makikita po natin kung gaano kamura yung rental (So we can see how cheap the rental is), and that is only one, that is in Quezon City. So for the information of everybody probably magamit niyo (you can use this) as terms of reference,” he added. 

Robredo served as vice president from 2016 to 2022.