THE House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co on Tuesday deferred the termination of deliberations on the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget.
This decision comes as no representative from the OVP attended the second budget briefing, with the motion stipulating either (1) a reduction in the proposed budget or (2) a hold on certain funds pending further discussion.
Committee vice chairperson and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. considered VP Duterte’s absence in the budget briefing as an affront to the institution.
“(B)ecause she is not present, she is actually insulting this second institution that should scrutinize the budget of the Vice President. And I do not care even if she is the Vice President, Madam Chair. I will not allow that Congress will be insulted by the head of any agency,” Abante stated.
House members instead sought answers regarding the OVP’s programs from attending officials from the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
COA Audit Team Leader Fahad Bin Abdul Malik Tomawis reported that the OVP’s spent P29 million in 2022 and P53 million in 2023 as rent and leasing expenses. These include rentals for the OVP satellite offices.
Zambales Rep. Doris Maniquiz questioned if satellite and extension office expenses should be disallowed if they duplicate regional and line agency services. She also asked about the P53 million spent on property leases, which translates to P4.4 million per month.
Tomawis also noted that COA found undistributed food items nearing expiration, missing food items, and improper storage conditions in unventilated shipping containers and food trucks on the Kalusugan Food Truck for Disaster Responders program.
“It’s very important na masagot ng OVP eto kasi… pagkain (ito). Ito ay kailangan ng mga mamamayan. Pero apparently, hindi pala naibibigay. Tapos kung hindi man naibibigay, too late na maibigay tapos paulit-ulit ito. We’ve seen this doon sa DepEd and we are now seeing this doon sa OVP,” Gabriel Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas noted.
Aside from duplication and possible overlapping of services with other agencies, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Jil Angelo Bongalon also highlighted the P62 million budget for travel expenses and P87.9 million for representation expenses of the OVP.
“These amounts Madam Chair, are unusually high particularly for an office that does not have an extensive field presence or international role unlike department such as Foreign Affairs,” Bongalon said.
COA also flagged multiple deficiencies in the distribution of welfare goods which include missing distribution lists, unverified beneficiary data, and delayed financial reports.
Tomawis reported that required documents, such as situational reports and property receipts were frequently missing, and some distribution lists were incomplete and lacked essential details.
“May mga lapses po doon sa existing guidelines and procedures ng OVP wherein hindi po kasama doon ‘yong pag-submit nitong mga documents such as the distribution list for the rice distributed to the beneficiaries through the deed of donation to local government units or municipalities,” Tomawis said.
Co emphasized the constitutional mandate of the House of Representatives to scrutinize the budget of government agencies.
“Karapatan at trabaho ng Kongreso ang pagbubusisi ng budget. Ang hindi niya (VP Duterte) pagsagot sa maayos na tanong at lalo pa ang hindi niya pagdalo sa hearing ngayon ay nagpapakita na kawalang respeto at paggalang sa mga kinatawan ng taong-bayan. Hindi lang po Kongresista ang winalanghiya niya dito kung hindi ang buong sambayanang Pilipinas,” Co remarked.
The initial budget briefing was deferred as a result of Vice President Sara Duterte’s unwillingness to provide clarification on the OVP’s 2023 confidential fund and its proposed 2025 budget of P2.037 billion.
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