VP won’t get free pass at budget hearings
THE OFFICE of the Vice-President (OVP) should explain at a budget hearing of the House of Representatives what happened to its P125-million confidential fund in 2022, congressmen said at the weekend.
Vice-President (VP) Sara Duterte-Carpio should also attend the budget hearing this week so congressmen could ask her questions, Manila Rep. Joel R. Chua said in a Viber message.
“It would be best that we wait for the Vice President to attend the budget hearings in person and present her office’s 2025 budget so House Members can pose their questions,” he added.
The House appropriations committee should examine Ms. Duterte-Carpio’s pet projects and her previous budgets aside from scrutinizing her office’s proposed 2025 budget, Mr. Chua said in a statement last week.
“When the… budget is tackled soon at the House, she should no longer be given a free pass,” he said. “Her… budget must be scrutinized for every [peso] spent,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
The OVP did not immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment.
Deputy Minority Leader and Party-list Rep. France L. Castro said Ms. Duterte-Carpio’s P125-million confidential fund for 2022 is an unfinished issue. “It has not been resolved yet, after she was unable to explain where and how she spent the money,” she said in a Viber message in Filipino.
Ms. Duterte-Carpio resigned from the Cabinet of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. last month amid a growing political rift between their families.
Last week, she took a swipe at the government, saying “Filipinos, deserve more than what we are hearing and seeing from the government right now.”
The OVP has proposed a P2-billion budget for next year, according to the 2025 National Expenditure Program, 7% lower than what it got this year.
Her quitting the Cabinet made the OVP’s budget open to congressional scrutiny, Hansley A. Juliano, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“The Office of the Vice President has respect insofar as the Vice President… has a Cabinet portfolio,” he said. “When the Vice-President breaks rank, it’s a political risk… In this case, why should Sara Duterte be given leeway [in the budget hearings]?” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
