THE Office of the Vice President (OVP) yesterday said it has so far only spent a total of P20.68 million as of July this year for local and foreign trips because Vice President Sara Duterte is paying for her own personal trips.
“We’d like to emphasize that all the travel overseas of the Vice President is covered by a travel authority and did not include any public funds, did not use any public funds,” OVP assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio told a press briefing.
The House Committee on Appropriations is set to hear the OVP’s proposed P903 million budget for 2026 this afternoon.
Duterte has been drawing heavy flak for her frequent foreign trips, especially from Palace spokesman Claire Castro, who has been reminding the Vice President of her duties and responsibilities as the second highest elected official of the country.
Duterte has been in and out of the country ever since her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands where he is facing trial for alleged crimes against humanity for his bloody drug war on drugs.
The Vice President has dismissed the criticisms that she is habitually absent from work, saying it is baseless because she has been meeting with Filipinos abroad who are “frustrated” with the Marcos administration.
OVP budget division chief Kelvin Gerome Tenido said that out of the P20.68 million, P13.207 million was spent for local travels, while P7.473 million was used to pay for foreign trips of Duterte’s security details and close-in personnel.
Tenido said the amount spent for local trips was about 40 percent of the total allocation this year, while the amount spent for foreign travels was around 25 percent of the budget for such purpose.
He noted that the OVP still has a balance of P24.026 million for foreign trips and P17.585 million for local trips from the 2025 total allocation of P62.5 million budget for travels.
The OVP budget division chief also noted that the OVP was allocated P20 million for its travel expenses under the P6.7 trillion proposed national budget for 2026, an amount, which he noted, is the lowest allocation since 2023.
Ortonio said their office is ready to answer any questions that lawmakers will ask during the budget deliberations, adding that they will “submit to the wisdom of the Congress” if it decides to cut the budget proposal.
