VP Sara claims Romualdez, Co 'controlling' nat'l budget; Co denies allegations

Vice President Sara Duterte claimed that House Speaker Martin Romualdez and House appropriations committee chair and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co have been "controlling" the national budget allocations. 

“Ang budget ng Pilipinas ay hawak lang ng dalawang tao. Hawak lang siya ni Cong. Zaldy Co at ni Cong. Martin Romualdez. ‘Yan ang katotohanan,” said Duterte in the second part of the recorded video interview shared by the Office of the Vice President to reporters.

(The budget of the Philippines is being controlled by two people, Cong. Zaldy Co and by Cong. Martin Romualdez. That's the truth.)

Duterte on Tuesday snubbed the resumption of the House appropriations panel's deliberation for the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

She implied that Romualdez and Co controlling the national budget was a reason why she refused to answer questions in the House budget deliberations.

She also said that it was also a reason why she resigned as DepEd chief in June this year.

'Budol'

In a separate interview, Co vehemently denied Duterte’s allegations. 

“Unang-una, again pangbubudol na naman po yan. Napakalaking pambubudol. Hindi po totoo iyan,” Co told reporters.

(Those claims are a scam. Straight up scam tactic. It is not true.)

This, as Co emphasized that the House appropriations panel has 139 members, while the House has over 300 members, and that there are also 24 Senators who scrutinize the proposed national budget every year.

“After our respective deliberations, there’s also a bicameral conference committee [deliberations] which is composed of 30 members from the House and the Senate,” Co added.

Co also slammed Duterte for snubbing the budget deliberations and refusing to answer questions from lawmakers.

“She keeps on saying,“I will defer to the wisdom of Congress” pero hindi naman totoo. Kasi kung totoo ito, sasagutin niya ang mga tanong ng mga mambabatas – lalo na sa isyu ng confidential funds.

(She says she will defers to the "wisdom of Congress" but that is not the case. If that's the truth, she would have answered our questions, especially on confidential funds.)

"Naalala ko last year, kinausap namin si VP Sara at kanyang mga trusted aides tungkol sa 2024 budget. Sinabi niya noon “ituloy niyo yan” – meaning yung confidential funds –  dahil kaya daw niya i-justify," Co said. 

I even recall talking to her aides last year about the proposed 2024  budget, and she said Congress should keep the proposed P500 million confidential funds for OVP under the proposed 2024 budget because she can justify such allocation.) 

"Mabuti na lang at hindi namin itinuloy, kung hindi magsisisi kami dahil ang pondo ng taumbayan ang pinag-uusapan dito,” Co added.

(It is a good thing we did not listen to her, because otherwise, we would have regretted it because these are public funds at stake.)

DepEd budget

Duterte—who served as DepEd Secretary from 2022 to mid-2024— earlier claimed that only P5 billion was initially approved for the classroom construction of DepEd under the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP), but when the General Appropriations Act (GAA) came out, the allocation increased to P15 billion. 

“Sa Department of Education noong taong 2023, mayroong P5 billion na in-approve para sa classroom construction. Nagulat ako kasi mayroong mga lumapit na miyembro ng House na humihingi. Hinihingi nila ‘yung P5 billion—parte ng P5 billion na budget,” she added. 

(In DepEd in 2023, there was a P5 billion approved budget for classroom construction. I was surprised because there were House members who asked for a share. They were asking for their share in the P5 billion budget.) 

“Kaya kung makikita ninyo sa budget proposal na approved ng Office of the President, P5 billion ‘yun. Pero noong lumabas ‘yung GAA o ‘yung budget approved noong 2023, naging P15 billion siya... dinagdagan nila ng P10 billion ‘yung classroom construction ng Department of Education,” she said. 

(So if you can see in the budget proposal approved by the Office of the President, it’s P5 billion. But when the GAA or the approved budget in 2023 came out, it became P15 billion because I did not agree for the P5 billion to be taken out. They added P10 billion to the classroom construction of the Department of Education.) 

“‘Yung P10 billion na ‘yun hindi kontrolado ng Department of Education. Controlled ‘yun ni Cong. Zaldy Co at Cong. Martin Romualdez," claimed the Vice President.

(That P10 billion is not controlled by the Department of Education. It was controlled by Cong. Zaldy Co and Cong. Martin Romualdez.)

"Hindi ko na kailangan ng corroborative witness dito dahil makikita ninyo ‘yun sa papel. Makikita ng taumbayan ‘yun sa papel. NEP, P5 billion. Lumabas ang budget approved, P15 billion,” she added.

(I don't need a corroborative witness here because you can see it in the paper. The people will see that in the paper. Under the NEP, it was P5 billion, but it became P15 billion when the approved budget came out.)

Duterte added that this also happened for the 2024 budget. 

She said there was a P19 billion allocation for classroom construction, but when the House version of the appropriations bill was released, it jumped to P24 billion.

—VAL, GMA Integrated News