Marcoleta asks House appro panel if it has right to forgo ‘tradition’ of skipping OVP budget delibs

A heated debate on whether the questioning period for the Office of the Vice President's 2025 budget should be forgone as a courtesy to Vice President Sara Duterte erupted at the House appropriations committee hearing on Tuesday.

Sagip party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta, on his feet, insisted that House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson and presiding officer Stella Quimbo answer his question on whether the House is abandoning the parliamentary courtesy traditionally given to the Vice President.

Quimbo had suspended the hearing after Marcoleta made the motion to terminate the OVP budget deliberations at the committee-level as a matter of courtesy.

“Sagutin ninyo [Answer] if this committee has the right to discard a well-kept tradition. Is this committee authorized to set aside a tradition? That is the question that needs to be answered first and foremost,” Marcoleta said.

Nobody from the OVP, including the Vice President, showed up at Tuesday's hearing, in the wake of Duterte's refusal to answer lawmakers' questions during last week's budget deliberations.

“Are we discarding the tradition? And is this committee authorized to discard a well-kept tradition?” Marcoleta added.

Davao City lawmaker Isidro Ungab also joined the fray by stressing that Marcoleta’s motion should first be deliberated upon.

“If there is an objection, [then we have] deliberation. Let’s follow the procedure,” he said.

Quimbo responded by saying that there was no abandonment of tradition, noting that a motion to terminate OVP budget deliberations at the committee level as a matter or courtesy was never made during last week’s proceedings, when the Vice President refused to answer lawmakers’ queries on how her office spent is P125 million and P500 million in confidential fund allocations in 2022 and 2023.

“You [Ungab] were here during the last hearing. No motion [to terminate OVP deliberations] was introduced. You can read the records,” Quimbo said.

Ungab still insisted that Marcoleta’s motion be discussed first while Marcoleta continued to press Quimbo that she should answer his question .

At this point, Abang Lingkod party-list Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano called out Marcoleta for hounding Quimbo for an answer, saying that the House appropriations panel is a collegial panel.

“Why is it that the chairman is the only one who should speak? Hindi ba kami pwede magsalita [May we not also speak]? We are also members of the same. Alam mo 'yun, Dante [ Marcoleta]. Puwede magsalita ang iba, hindi chairman lang [You know that. Others may speak, not just the chairman],” Paduano said.

Quimbo ultimately resumed the budget hearing and divided the House to resolve Marcoleta’s motion to terminate the proceedings, a motion that lost via an emphatic 3-45 vote.

The House appropriations panel proceeded with deliberations, largely asking Commission on Audit representatives on its 2023 audit findings on the OVP. — BM, GMA Integrated News