Cites ‘glaring mismanagement,’ COA-disallowed expenses
The House of Representatives is planning to slash by half the P2.03 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President for 2025.
Lawmakers noted the Commission on Audit has disallowed P73.2 million out of the P125 million in OVP intelligence funds that were used up in just 11 days in 2022.
COA also flagged the Department of Education, which Vice President Sara Duterte previously headed, for building only 192 classrooms or 3 percent of its target of 6, 379 classrooms last year.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said lawmakers are planning to approve “more or less P1 billion” out of the P2.03-billion proposed OVP budget for next year.
“If the Vice President wants, she can request funds from various agencies, just like other vice presidents have done,” Castro said.
“The real issue here is the glaring mismanagement of DepEd funds under her watch, where much-needed classrooms for our children were left unbuilt,” added House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe.
Dalipe called out the Vice President for resorting to “squid tactics” in evading the issues hounding her office.
“Instead of focusing on delivering results, we’re now seeing what others suspect all along, that the Vice President is resorting to squid tactics – using smokescreens and diversionary moves to escape accountability,” he said.
House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Rep. Elizaldy Co said most members of his panel believed the OVP funding for social services should be transferred to line agencies instead.
He noted the COA findings that less than one percent was utilized of the P150 million allocation for an entrepreneurship program under the OVP.
Duterte, for her part, she is ready to fulfill her duty along with her office “even without a budget.”
“We heard there is defunding, an effort 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 a recorded video interview released to the media.
“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.
She said the House scrutiny on how the previous OVP and Deped budgets were spent aimed 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.
Dalipe, however, chided Duterte for refusing to answer important questions on the use of DepEd funds, including the rotting and expired Nutribuns and other food items, among others.
“We are not asking for excuses and fingerpointing as answers from the Vice President. The public demands an explanation on how she spent the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
