House postpones OVP, DepEd budget deliberations due to schedule conflict

The House of Representatives postponed Tuesday the scheduled plenary deliberations on the proposed P2.3 billion and P758.6 billion budget, respectively, of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) due to a possible conflict of schedule.

House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin, vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, made the response when asked by House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro why the budgets of the OVP and the DepEd, both headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, were yet to be discussed in the plenary.

Based on the schedule released by the House, the OVP and DepEd should have been deliberated after the Office of the President’s proposed 2024 budget. The budget deliberations in the House plenary starts at 9 am.

“The OVP, as well as Secretary of the Department of Education, conveyed a message to the [House] Committee on Appropriations as well as the [House] Committee on Rules of a possible conflict of schedule,” Garin said.

“The details of which yours truly is not yet privy,” she added.

Garin then said the deliberations on the OVP and DepEd 2024 proposed budget have been temporarily moved to Wednesday, September 27.

“As of the moment, the deliberations on the proposed budget of OVP as well as the DepEd have been temporarily moved tomorrow, considering we also have other agencies in the pipeline,” she added.

A day earlier, Appropriations committee senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo  revealed that the OVP spent P125 million of its confidential funds in 2022, an allocation sourced from the contingent fund, in 11 days.—AOL, GMA Integrated News