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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider OVP denies solons waited for 17 hours in budget plenary

OVP denies solons waited for 17 hours in budget plenary

Published Sep 24, 2024 01:44 pm

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Tuesday, Sept. 24, denied claims that lawmakers were made to wait 17 hours during the House plenary debate on its 2025 budget proposal.

“OVP didn’t make congressmen wait for 17 hours,” a statement from Vice President Sara Duterte's office read.

It was reacting to Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel’s criticism of Duterte’s absence in the House plenary hearing for the proposed OVP budget on Monday, Sept. 23.

The lawmaker also said that they waited for 17 hours—from 10 a.m. of Sept. 23 to almost 3 a.m. of Sept. 24.

The OVP explained that House budget sponsor Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Adiong knew as early as Sept. 16–the date that Adiong’s office formally received the Sept. 11 dated letter from the OVP—“that VPSD ‘leaves the deliberation’ of the OVP budget proposal in the plenary ‘entirely to the pleasure of the House of Representatives’.”

“The received date by Cong. Adiong's office is clearly indicated at the lower right portion of the letter,” the statement added.

Duterte skipped the plenary hearing on Monday, but sent a representative from the OVP to attend the deliberations on the agency’s proposed P2.037-billion funding for 2025.

The OVP representative, however, had to leave the congressional budget deliberation in the absence of “any written communication” as required by the House rules “authorizing” them to represent Duterte’s office.

This came after the official was a no-show at the second budget hearing on Sept. 10, which was set because the Vice President refused to answer questions about her office’s use of confidential funds during the first hearing last Aug. 27.

The official explained during the first hearing that she would leave the fate of the OVP’s budget proposal entirely to the discretion of the House of Representatives because her office already submitted all necessary documents pertaining to the 2025 budget.

Lawmakers, however, recommended that the OVP’s budget be slashed from the proposed P2.037 billion to only P733.2 million by realigning some of its key programs to other relevant agencies.

Related Tags

plenary debates OVP budget hearing Sara Duterte
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