House OKs P6.352-T 2025 budget, cuts P1.29B from VP Sara's office

The House of Representatives approved the proposed P6.352-trillion budget for 2025 on third and final reading on Wednesday, which reduced the appropriations of the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte to P733 million from P2 billion.

A total of 285 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill No. 10800, while three voted against it. 

The approval came a day after President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. certified the measure as urgent.

A measure certified urgent by the President authorizes Congress to approve the said bill on second and third reading on the same day.

“Ang magiging badyet para sa OVP ay P733 milyon na halos kapareho ng badyet noong panahon ni Vice President Leni Robredo. Kasama na dito ang P30 milyon na makakatulong sa pagharap ng OVP sa epekto ng pagtaas ng presyo ng mga bilihin,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said in a statement.

(OVP’s budget for 2025 will be at P733 million, which is of the same level as during the last year in office of then Vice President Leni Robredo. This P733 million [include] P30 million since we factored in inflation.)

“May ilang miyembro ng Kongreso na nagmungkahi na bawasan pa ang badyet ng Office of the Vice President, at ang iba pa ay nagpanukala na gawing zero ang pondo ng tanggapan dahil sa kanyang hindi pagsipot. Ngunit tinanggihan ko ang mga mungkahing ito,” Romualdez said.

(There are members who want to further reduce the OVP’s budget, or even make it to zero due to her absence in the deliberations here. But I rejected these ideas.)

“Naiintindihan ko ang mga pagkadismaya, pero naniniwala ako na mahalaga pa ring magkaroon ng sapat na badyet ang Office of the Vice President para magpatuloy sa paglilingkod sa ating mga kababayan.  Kung tatanggalin natin ang pondo, wala ring pakinabang ang mga mamamayan, lalo na ang mga umaasa sa serbisyo ng opisina,” he added.

(I understand their sentiments, but I believe that it is important for the OVP to have a sufficient budget so they could serve the people. If we strip the OVP of its funds, it won’t benefit our people who are counting on OVP’s services.)

Romualdez, in the same statement, also said the OVP would still be able to refer the individuals seeking assistance from the OVP to various government agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Health (DOH).

“Bagaman inaasahan natin ang pananagutan at pakikilahok, mahalaga rin na tiyakin na magpapatuloy ang serbisyo-publiko para sa ikabubuti ng lahat,” Romualdez added.

(While we expect responsibility and participation from her, it is also important to ensure that the delivery of public service will remain unhampered.)

The Vice President has skipped House appropriations panel deliberations on OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025. She likewise snubbed House plenary discussions on the said proposed budget.

The House appropriations panel earlier recommended cutting the OVP's proposed P2 billion budget by P1.29 billion due to Duterte's refusal to answer lawmakers’ questions on OVP budget use, including confidential funds. 

Since then, the House good government and public accountability committee has also launched an inquiry into the efficiency, or lack of it, of the OVP in terms of its budget use.

The Vice President, however, said such scrutiny is a mere dry run for an impeachment case against her.

Opposition

House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela party-list lawmaker Arlene Brosas, however, said the approved budget is not responsive to people’s needs.

“This representation's vote for House Bill 10800 is No. This budget only addresses concerns of the few. There's still a lack of funding for housing, and the funding for living wage and growing our local production are not prioritized,” Brosas said.

“Dalawang taon na nakakalipas pero wala pa rin ang pinangakong bente pesos kada kilo ng bigas. Patuloy pa rin ang pag-angkat ng iba’t ibang produkto na siyang inaani naman sa ating bansa. It’s very ironic that Philippines as an agricultural country continues to import to this day,” Brosas added.

Kabataan party-list lawmaker Raoul Manuel said that the 2025 budget is too generous for the wrong reasons, especially to Vice President Duterte’s office.

“I vote no because it is not enough that we reduced OVP’s budget to P733 million. This is still too much given the poor performance of the OVP,”  Manuel said.

“If we reduce the budget of the OVP due to abuse of disbursing confidential funds and inefficient budget use, overlapping of functions and snail-paced delivery of service, we should do the same for NTF-ELCAC and the OP for politicized services and whole-of-nation-approach for state fascism,” Manuel added.

He was referring to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict which has been allocated a P7.8 billion budget for 2025 amid low disbursement in the previous years and the Office of the President which was appropriated P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds.  It has a total of  P10.7 billion budget.

Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero said, "sometime during the break… but, as you know, the finance committee has been conducting non-stop hearings since August."

He added that the timeline will be determined once the General Appropriations Bill reaches the Senate.

"We will pass it (the budget) on time," said Escudero.  — LDF/BAP, GMA Integrated News