THE proposed P902.8 million 2026 budget of the Office of the Vice President was approved by the Senate finance sub-committee yesterday.
The proposed budget was submitted for plenary deliberations but the senators present decided to extend parliamentary courtesy to VP Sara Duterte, who was present during the budget briefing.
The OVP budget briefing was over in less than an hour.
Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri moved to immediately endorse the OVP budget for plenary discussions after Sen. Erwin Tulfo asked a few questions on what projects would be affected after the Department of Budget and Management did not consider the entire P942 million budget requested by the office.
Zubiri said that it has always been a tradition not to ask questions to extend parliamentary courtesy to the OVP and the Office of the President during the budget season.
“We have parliamentary courtesy here. I’ve been through almost 23 budgets already. When the Vice President and the President visit us, we give them parliamentary courtesy. And in this case, the budget of the Vice President is already a lean and mean budget. So maybe we can afford them the courtesy that we approve the budget,” Zubiri said.
Sen. Imee Marcos seconded Zubiri’s motion.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Committee on Finance chairman, approved the motion after no senator present objected.
Before the OVP budget was approved on the committee level, Sen Erwin Tulfo asked what specific programs would be affected by the budget cut — from P942 million to P902.8 million.
Rosalynne Sanchez, the OVP’s director for the administrative and financial services office, said the P39.143 million “not considered” by the DBM on their agency’s budget was only for the purchase of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, and will not adversely affect their operations.
“So, we will just reprioritize the ICT equipment that we will procure and we will work within the budget that was provided by the NEP (National Expenditure Program). We will just review our requirements and prioritize based on the urgency of the ICT equipment that we need to procure,” Sanchez said.
Duterte, in a press conference in the Senate after the budget briefing, said the OVP would help more people in need if they have a bigger budget.
“But we decided not to submit a proposal for a bigger budget since we know that it will not be given,” she said.
