Solons want OVP budget scrutinized
VICE President Sara Duterte’s latest tirades against the administration has triggered an all-out war with President Marcos Jr.’s allies at the House of Representatives, who said they will give her a hard time once she faces lawmakers to defend the Office of the Vice President’s P2.037-billion proposed budget for 2025.
“When the OVP budget is tackled soon at the House, she should no longer be given a free pass. Her OVP budget must be scrutinized for every peso spent and not spent. No more and never again shall the VP not be held to the same level of scrutiny as other public officials during the budget hearings,” Manila Rep. Joel Chua said in a statement.
Chua said he and his colleagues would make the Vice President account for her “huge spending” when the House takes up the OVP budget, pointing out that she should explain where every peso of the OVP budget is being used annually.
The OVP had a budget of P702 million in 2022, when Duterte took over from then Vice President Leni Robredo. This jumped more than three times to P2.343 billion in 2023 and this year, the OVP has a budget of P1.874 billion, which is eight percent lower than what is being proposed for 2025.
Zambales Rep. Jeffrey Khonghun said the Vice President has not even satisfactorily explained how she spent her P125 million confidential funds in just 11 days in 2022.
The Vice President earned the ire of lawmakers when she stepped up criticisms against the administration on Wednesday, saying the people “deserve better.” She assailed the government’s performance on various issues like health care, poverty, and flood control and blamed administration for the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the bloody war against drugs implemented by her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
She accused the administration of allowing foreigners to meddle in the country’s internal affairs amid reports that it cannot stop the Interpol if the ICC seeks its assistance in going after her father and all others tagged responsible for the thousands of deaths caused by the previous administration’s drugs war.
The House’s stringent review of the OVP’s budget will be on top of the joint investigation of the four committees tasked by the plenary to look into the top issues hounding the previous Duterte administration: Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and crimes associated with it, the proliferation of illegal drugs, and the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Chua said the Vice President “is misrepresenting herself as a champion of the masses using empty words and generalizations, all the while having nothing real and concrete to show for in terms of true results as Vice President and as (former) Education Secretary.”
The administration lawmaker also said the Vice President “has a penchant for gimmicky, comedy, nonsense, and posing for selfies to cover for her lack of performance.”
He told her to “prove” in Congress what she did with her budget from 2022 to this year.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Chua challenged the younger Duterte to present her accomplishments, particularly in providing jobs to the people, helping micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and saving lives by improving health care.
Chua said the younger Duterte should also explain why “she was missing and silent when the country needed her most, especially when the Chinese Coast Guard is harassing and bullying Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea.”
He said the Vice President, whose father is a close friend of China, “is evading issues involving Beijing and its citizens linked to criminal activities here,” obviously referring to POGOs.
Chua also took the Vice President to task for leaving for Germany with her family for a vacation at the height of recent typhoon “Carina,” for her alleged absence during the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon, the bombing of the Mindanao State University, and when the time when El Niño was ravaging rice fields.
DIVISION
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said The Vice President has “a tendency to politicize religious affiliations.”
The younger Duterte’s statements against the administration on Wednesday was part of her “Message to My Muslim Friends,” where she thanked the Muslim tribes of Iranun, Kagan, Maguindanao, Maranao, Sama and Tausug for expressing support for her and her family after she complained that the PNP has recalled 75 or her police escorts.
“We Muslims do not deserve that, we are part of this grand march towards progress and not some separate pitiable entity,” Adiong said. “This kind of rhetoric only sows division and distracts from the real work that needs to be done.”
Duterte, who virtually cut ties with the administration in June when she resigned as education secretary, cried “political harassment” last month over a PNP move to recall part of her police escorts.
`SAME BREED’
Rep. France Castro (PL, Makabayan) said “both political families of Marcoses and Dutertes are more of the same; they are the same breed that exploits and oppress the Filipino people for their own gains.”
“If we can just see their families’ net worth before and after they took office, then we can see a very significant jump of their assets. We Filipinos, definitely deserve better and it will not come from the Dutertes or Marcoses it will come from the ranks of the masses themselves who espouses the politics of change and true service to the people,” she said.
Castro told the Vice President that the country “does not need officials who remain silent on burning issues that affect us Filipinos like POGOs, the West Philippine Sea and extra-judicial killings.”
“We do not need officials who, at the height of a typhoon that flooded most of Luzon and affected millions, left for Germany for a family vacation. We especially do not need officials who up till now has not sufficiently explained how spent her illegally acquired P125 million confidential funds in just 11 days,” she said.
CONTRA SONA
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said the Vice President could have delivered a contra-State of the Nation Address to express her dissatisfaction with the Marcos administration.
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said the parting of Marcos and Duterte “does not give a very positive perception of the political stability” in the country, which will drive away foreign investors.
During the campaign, he said, Marcos and Duterte started off very strong as they showed what unity meant in their UniTeam.
“I think it will be very helpful for us to attract foreign direct investments for us to be able to project a very good image abroad if we have political stability, especially if the top two officials are working together,” he said.
Ejercito also said “we have a good government,” contradicting Duterte’s statement that Filipinos deserve a better government. — With Raymond Africa
