PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said there is no politics involved in the budget hearings being conducted by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of Vice President.
In an ambush interview, the President said all government agencies go through the process of budget deliberations every year.
“This is something that every single government agency has to do. So, it’s a hearing. There’s no politics in it. We do it every year. We do it with (to all the) departments,” he said.
He stressed: “That process is well-established. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the budget.”
He said he does not know why Vice President Sara Duterte is alleging that the budget process has been politicized by lawmakers, pointing out that the question and answer during hearings is “essentially an information gathering exercise for the House and for the Senate so that they know what the budget will look like”.
The Vice President complained during the Senate hearing on her office’s P2.037 billion budget request for next year that Sen. Risa Hontiveros allegedly politicized the discussions when she raised questions about the OVP’s socio-economic programs and the P10 million allocation for the printing and distribution of Duterte’s children’s book “Isang Kaibigan.”
Durerte said that the political climate surrounding the OVP could result in the discontinuation of some of her office’s projects.
DIVERTING ATTENTION?
The militant Makabayan bloc yesterday denied Duterte’s allegation that their group is conspiring with Marcos and his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez to attack her, saying the Vice President is fabricating stories to divert public attention from her alleged misuse of public funds.
“We, the Makabayan bloc, denounce Vice President Sara Duterte’s latest attempt to deflect the public’s attention from the pressing issue of her misuse of confidential funds by fabricating a supposed Makabayan-Romualdez-Marcos alliance. It is imperative to set the record straight: no such alliance exists,” the
Makabayan bloc said in a statement.
The Makabayan bloc is composed of party-list Reps. France Castro (ACT), Arlene Brosas (Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (Kabataan).
“Rather than resorting to these squid tactics, Vice President Duterte should directly and truthfully respond to the questions to be raised during the interpellations on her office’s next budget briefing scheduled for September 10. She is expected to attend and explain to the committee how public funds were used,” they said.
The Vice President has denied any misuse of public funds, as she assailed what she called the “unending political attack by the Makabayan-Romualdez-Marcos alliance to mask the real problem of the country right now.”
Castro said last Friday that the Notice of Disallowance (ND) issued by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the OVP’s P73 million 2022 confidential funds could be used to impeach Duterte.
COA earlier ordered the OVP to return P73 million out of the P125 million in confidential funds that it spent in just 11 days in December 2022.
“The Commission on Audit’s (COA) Notice of Disallowance has already highlighted the alarming misuse of PHP 125 million in confidential funds by the Vice President’s office in December 2022. The state auditor demands the return of PHP 73 million due to this egregious spending within just 11 days, purportedly for ‘surveillance’ activities across 132 areas,” Makabayan said.
On top of this, they also cited COA’s audit report on the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2023, Duterte’s last full year as education secretary, saying it showed notices of suspension amounting to P10.1 billion, notices of disallowance totaling P2.2 billion, and notices of charges worth P7.38 million due to “noncompliance with existing laws and regulations” in its implementation of department projects.
COA also reported the accumulation of unliquidated cash advances that were either not authorized or had no specific purpose amounting to nearly P7 billion in violation of COA rules, Makabayan added.
“Vice President Duterte must answer the extreme under utilization of the Department of Education budget while she had 100 percent utilization of confidential funds,” the militant lawmakers said.
They said the Vice President’s refusal to answer legitimate questions regarding her budget spending “demonstrates a disregard for the principles of transparency, accountability, and the constitutional duties she swore to uphold.”
“The misuse of public funds of the OVP and DepEd is an impeachable offense, particularly given the severe lack of funding for social services,” the group said. “Furthermore, we are diligently doing our jobs that is why we are scrutinizing the budget of every department and agency to ensure that the taxpayers’ money are well spent. This includes scrutinizing the budget of the Office of the President. We are also among the most prolific lawmakers in the House of Representatives with hundreds of pro-people bills and other legislative measures filed.”
Tension rose during the budget hearing last August 27 after Duterte stonewalled questions on the COA’s ND for the OVP’s use of confidential funds, saying it was up to the House to decide on her office’s budget proposal.
A combative Duterte was chastised to respect the panel after she repeatedly questioned the rulings of presiding chair Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo and the House rules and even tried to raise motions despite not being a member of the chamber.
“It is ironic for someone to tell lawmakers ‘magtrabaho muna’ (work first) when she has a zero accomplishment rate for the DepEd computerization program, only three percent of her target classrooms built, P9.6B worth of laptops delayed for years and her nutribuns for feeding kids stale or moldy,” Makabayan said.
“So, enough with VP Duterte’s squid tactics, we demand accountability. It is the right of the people to know how their money was spent, and it is our duty to ensure that public officials do not betray their trust as this becomes an impeachable offense,” they added. — With Wendell Vigilia
