Vice President Sara Duterte has proclaimed she is ready to fulfill her duty along with her office “even without a budget” amid talks of defunding from the House of Representatives.
“We also heard there is defunding, to defund the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget. We also heard that only a peso may be allotted to the OVP budget,” Duterte said in Filipino.
“We are ready, I am ready, to work at the OVP even without a budget. Our office is only small. Our operations are only small so we can handle our work even without a budget. We know anyway that it is part of the attacks. So for us, we will just continue to do what we need to for the country,” she added.
The Vice President said the plans to defund the OVP are part of a broader attack aimed at “tarnishing” her reputation.
She further claimed the OVP has been cooperating with the Supreme Court regarding the three cases filed concerning the use of controversial confidential funds, further asserting it has no relation to the proposed 2025 budget.
“It has nothing to do with the OVP 2025 budget proposal but everything to do with confidential funds. That there has long been a case, three even at the Supreme Court. They have long been asking for an audit and we are cooperating with the edit,” Duterte said.
“So you will see if we keep repeating what happened at the House budget hearing on August 27. They have a plan to use that to malign me. And they did not stop there. As you will see, now they are on the Department of Education (DepEd) budget to ruin my name. Even if I had nothing to do with the observations of the Commission on Audit (COA), they are saying ‘It is Inday Sara’s fault,'” she added.
