Vice President Sara Duterte may have refused to defend the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) proposed 2025 budget, but she did not take a House panel’s inquiry into her office’s alleged misuse of public funds sitting down.
Vice President Sara Duterte delivers her opening speech during the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s hearing on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget use on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Screengrab from the House of Representatives)
Instead, during a personal appearance in the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s inquiry on Wednesday, Sept. 18, the Vice President delivered a scathing seven-minute opening speech and declared that the OVP did not misuse its funds.
“In view of the said letter, I am appearing before you today not only as the head of office but, more importantly, as the duly-authorized representative of all officials of the OVP — simply because we have not done anything wrong,” she said, referring to a congressional letter requesting for OVP’s representatives to attend the legislative inquiry.
The official stressed the OVP’s readiness to be audited, as well as to face the courts.
“There is no misuse of funds. If there are audit findings, we shall gladly respond to them before the Commission on Audit. And if there are legitimate cases to be filed, then we shall gladly respond to them before the appropriate courts,” she added.
Duterte, a lawyer, also noted that the lawmakers’ opening speeches on the “determination of misfeasance, nonfeasance, and malfeasance” must be taken in the courts of law.
The Vice President’s bad blood with the House of Representatives now was a stark contrast to how she was treated in 2022 and 2023 when her budget proposals were passed without much scrutiny because of tradition and courtesy.
“I am not asking for any special treatment, nor am I asking you to uphold any tradition. There is no disrespect. All I am saying is that you have the complete freedom to do whatever you wish to the OVP budget,” she said.
Duterte refused to defend the OVP’s budget during the first hearing on Aug. 27, saying that it is up to the House of Representatives’ discretion to approve it or not.
On Sept. 3, Manila 2nd district Rep. Rolando Valeriano delivered Privilege Speech No. 379 on "Asserting Power of the Purse" of Congress, which assailed the Vice President for her supposed failure to cooperate how her office is utilizing public funds.
But the official argued that she has already publicly stated the reasons why she chose not to defend the OVP’s budget, referring to a pre-taped video interview wherein she explained how House Speaker Martin Romualdez and House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. Elizaldy Co have meddled into the OVP’s and the Department of Education’s (DepEd) budgets.
“Hence, just as we have done last year, we again leave the 2025 OVP budget to the pleasure of Congressman Romualdez,” she said.
Before their falling out, Romualdez was Duterte’s campaign manager in the 2022 national elections where she run in the UniTeam tandem with President Marcos, the House Speaker’s cousin.