VP Sara snubs resumption of OVP budget deliberations

Vice President Sara Duterte was a no show at the resumption of the House appropriations panel's deliberation for the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Tuesday.

The OVP also did not send any representative to face lawmakers and defend their proposed P2 billion budget next year.

“We defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the Committee regarding our budget proposal for the upcoming year,” Duterte said in her letter dated September 10, which was received by the House before 9 a.m.

“The OVP has submitted all necessary documentation to the House of Representatives - Committee on Appropriations, including a detailed presentation on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025," she added.

Vice President and the rest of OVP’s absence follows the deferment of the endorsement of OVP’s proposed budget for 2025 last week due to the Vice President’s refusal to answer questions of lawmakers.

Duterte, however, maintained that she had already stated her position during the last hearing.

"I have also articulated my position on the issues outlined in my opening statement during the previous hearing on 27 August 2024,” said Duterte in her letter. 

'Insult'

House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela party-list Representative Arlene Brosas called the snub "an insult" to members of Congress.

“Madam Chair, isang insulto sa mga mayang Pilipino at sa mga kinatawan dito sa loob ng Kongreso na hinalal ng mamamayan. Ang hiling natin, makapagpaliwanag ng accountability... kasi maraming pa po tayong tanong, kaugnay dito," Brosas said.

(Madam Chair, it is an insult to the Filipino people and to the representatives here in Congress who were elected by the people. We were hoping that she would explain and be accountable... because we still have many questions related to this.)

"She may not like our questions last hearing, Madam Chair. She may not like being questioned about the OVP expenses. She may not like sitting with us here in the House. But, Madam Chair, she is accountable to the people and she has this sworn duty to the Constitution, being the head of the agency, to be here,” she added.

Brosas referenced the Vice President’s comment on lawmakers’ questioning during the last hearing wherein Duterte said “She may not like my answer..She may not like the content of my answer,but I am answering [the questions].”

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list lawmaker France Castro echoed Brosas, calling the Vice President “bratinella talaga” over Tuesday’s absence.

(She is really a bratinella.)

"It is her duty to answer questions here. This is non-negotiable. There should be no sacred cows in budget hearings. The OVP should be reminded that public office is a public trust. She should be faithful to that trust,”

Duterte earlier said that she is not being a bratinella or a spoiled brat in refusing to answer the lawmakers’ questions during budget deliberations last week.

Sagip party-list lawmaker Rodante Marcoleta quickly moved to terminate the OVP budget deliberations and forego questions to the OVP at the level of the House appropriations panel as a matter of traditional parliamentary courtesy to the Vice President, a motion quickly seconded by Davao City Representative Isidro Ungab.

Presiding officer and House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo then suspended the budget hearing, but Marcoleta and Ungab raised voices and in insisting off mic of extending courtesy to the Vice President, saying this has been the case dating back to the tenure of former Vice President Noli de Castro, who served as Vice President from 2004 to 2010.

“These questions [being asked to the Vice President] never happened before. That [absence of] questions at the committee level is in line with tradition. That is the one I'm explaining to you. It never, it did not happen before,” Marcoleta said.

“You may not like the person, you may not like her presence here, but you have to respect the office of the Vice President. That is all, because that is guided by the tradition. Why are we intending to ask questions na naman at pinatawag nyo na naman kung sino-sino dito?,” he added.

The other resource persons Marcoleta was referring to were from the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management.

Quimbo, however, did not relent and resumed budget deliberations on mic.

Marcoleta then reiterated his motion to terminate the OVP budget deliberations as a matter of courtesy, and Quimbo quickly put it to a vote.

Ungab tried to reason out that “we [the House] should deliberate first [on the motion], but his plea fell on deaf ears.

Marcoleta’s motion was defeated with only three yes votes as against 45 no votes.

Aside from Marcoleta and Ungab, the only other lawmaker who agreed with them is Davao Occidental Representative Claude Bautista.

The House then proceeded to the OVP budget deliberations.

Later in the hearing, Quimbo said courtesy is not worth anything if it means betraying public trust.

“Aanhin natin ang tradisyon kung tatalikuran natin ang ating obligasyon sa taong bayan na suriin ang budget,” Quimbo said.  

(What is the use of tradition if it would mean turning back on our responsibilities to scrutinize the budget.)

—VAL, GMA Integrated News