THE House committee on appropriations yesterday approved the Office of the Vice President’s proposed P2.3 billion budget for 2023 in less than seven minutes without entertaining questions from lawmakers as a courtesy to Vice President Sara Duterte who physically attended the hearing.
It was minority leader Marcelino Libanan who moved to terminate the budget briefing, saying members of the minority bloc who want to ask questions on the OVP’s budget like members of the Makabayan bloc, will just do so when the budget reaches plenary deliberations.
Majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe seconded the motion in the presence of Speaker Martin Romualdez and other House leaders, like senior deputy speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and presidential son senior deputy majority leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos of Ilocos Norte.
“Thank you for sharing this day with the Office of the Vice President and thank you for your continued support to the budget and all the programs, activities, and projects of the Office of the Vice President,” Duterte told the panel.
“We continue to support as well the legislative districts of our honorable members of the House of Representatives with all the meager projects of the (OVP). And if there is anything that we can do to help you as an Office, in your respective mandates in your respective legislative districts and party lists, please do let us know,” she also said.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said the Makabayan bloc members were the only ones in line to interpellate on the budget of the OVP “but were not allowed to put forward questions or clarifications,” which she said was “a clear disregard for the Filipino people’s right to scrutinize the budget of government offices.”
Brosas said she was supposed to question the OVP’s proposed P500 million confidential fund to find out where exactly the money will be used while Rep. France Castro said she fears that “such funds can be used for surveillance and finance a coup against the President because it is a highly secretive type of fund.”
The left-leaning lawmakers were later able to question the OVP’s P500 million confidential funds and another P150 million for the Department of Education when the committee tackled the proposed P710 billion budget of the DepEd, which is also headed by the Vice President in concurrent capacity as education secretary.
Brosas asked the Vice President why there is a need for a total of P650 million in confidential funds when such money can be used for the construction of around 167,000 classrooms and repairs of at some 149,000 classrooms.
Duterte however reminded lawmakers that the OVP and the DepEd “are two separate entities with separate mandates” and that “the success of the programs, activities and projects depends on very good intelligence and surveillance because you want to target specific issues and challenges.”
“Basic education is directly linked to the national security of our country,” Duterte told the panel, adding that the DepEd needs the help of the security sector in addressing incidents of sexual grooming and/or sexual abuse of students by school officials, drug use and the use of children in criminal activities.
Duterte’s spokesman Reynold Munsayac earlier said the OVP, in using the funds for confidential expenses, will adhere to the parameters set by the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit through Joint Circular No. 2015-01 or the guidelines on the utilization of confidential funds.
He said the position and mandate of the Vice President “allows her to utilize those kinds of funds, regarding peace and order and national security, especially we have livelihood projects that will be implemented in conflict areas in our attempt to maintain peace and order and pursue national security projects.”
Castro then asked how Duterte intends to address the students’ poor reading and comprehension and science and math skills, prompting the Vice President to disclose that she has told President Marcos that she will be able to solve the country’s basic education problems if Congress can grant the DepEd an additional P100 billion.
“If the DepEd is given the budget that it is requesting, we will be able to open more programs to address the learning problems of our students. So initially po, lumapit na kami sa Pangulo at sinabihan ko po ang Pangulo na if you give me P100 billion (So initially, we approached the President and told him that if you give me P199 billion), I will solve all the problems of basic education,” said the Vice President.
Castro also asked why the DepEd is pushing for the return of the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) instead of prioritizing the basic education problems to which Duterte said she is open to starting new programs to address the learning issues.
Rep. Elizaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol), the panel chair, said that while government has to do more for the education sector, he is confident that the bulk of the budgets of the OVP and the DepEd “will go towards good governance projects and the social services.”
“I speak for my colleagues when I say that this committee has full confidence in the Vice President’s performance of her duties,” Co said. “Days from assuming office, the OVP has been very active. Within that short period, various satellite offices have been established all over the country which enabled the government to expand the reach of its social services.”
In a statement, Castro later expressed disappointment that the DepEd is pushing for the passage of a legislation to impose mandatory ROTC in basic education over legislative measures that would address the worsening learning crisis in the country brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With this priority legislation and budget of the DepEd, it appears that the DepEd Secretary intends to militarize the education agency,” said the militant lawmaker.
