House panel defers deliberations on OVP budget

The House committee on appropriations has deferred the deliberations of the Office of the Vice President’s P2 billion proposed budget for 2025 amid the refusal of Vice President Sara Duterte to answer how her office uses its budget.

Zambales Representative Jeff Khonghun made the motion to defer, expressing frustration with Duterte's constant dodging of questions during the five-hour hearing.

The motion was carried without objections.  The panel set the budget deliberations on September 10.

At one point during the discussions on the disallowance of the P73-million spending of the OVP of its confidential funds in 2022, Duterte asked the panel to replace the presiding officer, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, the vice chairperson of the committee.

“This is a hearing of the [proposed] budget of 2025. This P125 million that we know is not in the budget of 2025. I request that the chairperson of the finance committee preside over this hearing,”  Duterte said, actually referring to House appropriations panel chairman and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co.

In response, Quimnbo said, “Madam Vice President, with due respect, you are not allowed to do that, Madam Vice President. You are not allowed to introduce any motion. You are a resource person in this hearing, Madam Vice President."

“Madam Vice President, just please answer the question. The issue of confidential funds falls squarely within our discussion of your 2025 budget,” she added.

Quimbo’s appeal, however, fell on deaf ears.

Lanao del Sur Rep.Zia Adiong, the designated sponsor of the proposed OVP budget in the plenary, said that the proceedings were not ideal, adding Duterte should provide sufficient answers for her to secure budget approval.

“Well, she tried to avoid questions. It was very apparent. I cannot speak for her in the way she responded to the questions.  But I can tell you, it's going to be a lot difficult task for me to defend and sponsor the budget,” he told reporters.

“I was expecting more productive exchanges because that has been the tradition since the creation of the House of Representatives. This is actually the first time that I saw that kind of deliberation. I was hoping that all the questions from my colleagues would be satisfactorily answered,” Adiong added.

Adiong, however, remains optimistic that the Vice President will act more productively.

“There’s going to be another budget deliberation on September 10, and I hope by that time it's going to be a more productive engagement, that there will be more information that will be solicited from the Office of the Vice President,” he said.

“I am an optimistic person, although what we saw today was a bit disappointing,” he added.

Disallowed

During the hearing, Duterte was also told of the Commission on Audit's (COA) notice of disallowance on the P73 million worth of confidential funds spent by her office in 2022. 

Asked by ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro about the disallowances cited by the COA, Duterte said the hearing was about the proposed P2-billion OVP budget which didn't include confidential funds for 2025.

"Discussions should be germane to the topic. ...This is hearing of the budget of 2025, nasaan dito ang confidential funds (Where's the confidential fund here)?" Duterte said.

According to the COA Notice of Disallowance, at least P69 million of the P73 million disallowed involved the following: P10 million for reward payment; P34.857 million for payment of reward (various goods); and P24.93 million for payment of reward (medicines).

Likewise, COA said that P3.5 million of the disallowed P73 million “were used for payment for tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers without specifying that they were intended for the confidential operations/activities undertaken by the OVP, non-compliant with the requirement of Item 4.8.4 of the Joint Circular governing use of confidential fund.”

Duterte repeatedly dodged questions on the OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025, COA findings on confidential funds, and the use of confidential funds.

“I would like to forego the opportunity to defend the budget in a question-and-answer format. I will leave it up to them to decide on the proposal as presented/as submitted," she said.—LDF, GMA Integrated News