Had Vice President Sara Duterte not shown her seeming allergy to accountability, the 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) would not have been slashed from P2 billion to P733 million by the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
Information, said appropriations senior vice chairperson and Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo, is very important in deciding whether to increase, retain or reduce an agency’s budget, and it was unfortunate that VP Duterte decided to willingly withhold information that the lawmakers needed to decide on the OVP’s budget.
“Ang sa atin again pinaka-importante is anong information ang makukuha natin kasi we need to make an informed decision. Ang budget is an informed decision. Information ang pinakaimportante sa lahat,” she said in an ambush interview with the media.
Asked if Vice President Duterte’s refusal to answer questions during the first hearing and her absence in the second hearing prompted the appropriations committee to reduce her budget, Quimbo said she and her colleagues in the panel just did their job.
“Well sa amin, trabaho lang po ang ginagawa natin. At the end of the day, ang most important thing to ask would be the information needed to reflect on the budget, iyon lang talaga. So, to the extent, iyong absence niya did not shed light on many issues sa aking palagay ang naka-affect. Yung kakulangan ng information ‘yan ang naka-affect talaga,” she said.
VP Duterte refused to answer most questions from committee members during the panel’s first hearing on the OVP outlay and snubbed the second hearing.
As to whether the Vice President’s presence in the plenary session when the OVP budget is tackled would change the committee’s or plenary’s decision, Quimbo said, “Tingnan po natin. I mean we are open to anything. As I said, there's another round of amendments (in plenary).”
“Kasi alam niyo dito sa amin, House of the People, welcome pong lahat. Welcome ang lahat,” she said.
She added that the committee’s decision to recommend a substantial reduction in the OVP budget was “difficult.”
She pointed out that once the decision was made, identifying the items of appropriation in the OVP outlay where the cuts would be taken “was easy,” since these were already determined in reports of the Commission on Audit (COA).
“As to where… what the problem areas were, that was easy. Listening to all the during the hearings - ang tagal nung hearing di ba?- kahit naman kayo may mga major things that will jump out, and yung sinabi ko na nga na kung bakit madaming satellite offices and number two, ‘yung napakaraming programa na meron namang sa national government na pwedeng i-tap,” she explained.
She said the committee and the COA found the OVP’s social programs, such as giving financial assistance to the poor, redundant because the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Health (DOH) are implementing the same social protection programs more efficiently.
“And you can have as much allocation as you can implement. At ganoon naman ang mga senators, congressmen. So why not have the same kind of arrangement?” Quimbo asked.
There was also the issue of fund utilization efficiency, she said.
“And…yung usual na hinahanap namin, which is magkano bang utilization mo, ano ba yung efficiency mo,” she said.
The appropriations committee transferred the entire P947-million “financial assistance” fund and other budget reductions of the OVP to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Assistance of Individuals in Crisis Situation program and the Department of Health’s medical assistance program.
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