Villanueva says he, other senators want higher budget for OVP

Senator Joel Villanueva said he and about four to five of his colleagues want to increase the budget of the Office of the Vice President despite the controversies surrounding Vice President Sara Duterte.

On Friday, Villanueva said his push to increase the P733 million approved budget of the OVP for 2025 is to help the agency’s social programs, adding that he doesn’t care whoever is leading the office.

“I’m also in the position to increase, somehow, the budget, not necessarily ibalik lahat [...]  I for one would like to put some more kasi parang, if you look at the office, we should not be looking at whoever is sitting there as the vice president. We should not be looking at the personalities involved here,” Villanueva told reporters in a chance interview.

(I’m also in the position to increase, somehow, the budget, but we don’t need to necessarily reinstate the slashed amounts [...] I for one would like to put some more because we should not be looking at whoever is sitting there as the vice president. We should not be looking at the personalities involved here.)

“I’m looking at the office. I feel like we need to put some more social fund na pwedeng gamitin ng vice president kasi vice president’s office ‘yan.”

(I’m looking at the office. I feel like we need to put some more social fund which can be used by the vice president because it’s her office.)

The Senate finance committee earlier adopted the House of Representatives' decision to cut the budget of the OVP to P733 million from the P2 billion as originally proposed in the National Expenditure Program submitted by the Executive Department to Congress.

It was breezed through the plenary deliberations but finance panel chairperson, Senator Grace Poe, said that the approved budget of the OVP is not yet final as senators may still propose to increase or further slash Duterte’s office during the period of amendments.

Same sentiments

Further, Villanueva said that around four to five of his colleagues also have the same sentiments to increase the OVP’s budget for next year. But he did not name them.

“I have spoken to like four or five members na pareho ng aking pananaw na increasan ang budget ng Office of the Vice President mula sa GAB na pinasa ng Congress,” he said.

(I have spoken to like four or five members who also have the same sentiments to increase the budget of Office of the Vice President based on the GAB approved by the Congress.)

“The answer given to us by the chairperson Senator Grace Poe, by the time we tackle the amendments in the budget, that’s the right time we discuss the possible increase.”

Duterte earlier lamented that around 200 workers in the OVP could lose their jobs if it will only operate with the said amount.

But Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday said that the P733 million budget for OVP is already enough, noting that the previous vice presidents were able to operate even without billions of budget.

“I think sapat na yung current level ng proposed budget ng OVP. Nakapag-operate na nga ang mga ibang OVPs in previous administrations sa ganyang level lang,” Hontiveros said.

(I think the current level of OVP’s proposed budget is already enough. The OVPs in the previous administrations were able to operate in the same level of budget.)

For his part, Villanueva further justified his intention to increase the OVP’s budget as employees could be affected with the slashed budget.

“That is the main reason why I wanted actually to look into the increasing the budget of the OVP,” he said.

“I am the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor. Every time merong mga kawani ng pamahalaan na maapektuhan, lalo na eh matatanggal sa kanilang trabaho, dapat tinitignan nating mabuti yan.”

(I am the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor. Every time that there are affected government agencies, especially when retrenchment could possibly happen, we should be looking into it.)

The vice chairperson of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability earlier said that Duterte should be the one to blame if ever several of her employees would lose their jobs because she refused to defend the earlier proposal of P2 billion. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News