VICE President Sara Duterte’s P733.198 million budget for next year which was approved by the House of Representatives is still higher than most of the outlays allocated throughout the six-year term of her predecessor, former vice president Leni Robredo, a House leader said yesterday.

“The Office of the Vice President (OVP) led by VP Duterte will not be crippled despite the decision of the House to reduce her 2025 funding. The Vice President will have sufficient funds to discharge her constitutional duties,” Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales said in a statement.

The House Committee on Appropriations has slashed the OVP’s proposed P2.037 billion budget by a whopping 63.8 percent, approving only P733.198 million after Duterte refused to answer questions from lawmakers related to how her office spent its P2.3 billion allocation in 2023.

The Vice President particularly stonewalled questions hounding her use of P125 million confidential funds in 2022, P73 million of which was later disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

The House, in plenary, last week adopted the committee’s recommendation before it approved Malacañang’s P6.352 trillion proposed national budget for 2025 on third and final reading.

This was after Speaker Martin Romualdez appealed to colleagues not to slash the OVP’s budget even more as proposed by some lawmakers, who wanted to give the OVP a zero budget because of her absence in plenary and committee deliberations on her office’s proposed budget.

The reduction was also prompted by audit findings that the OVP’s Financial Assistance (FA) schemes such as the distribution of burial, educational, medical, and transportation funds were redundant because it duplicates similar programs being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Health (DOH).

The House realigned the OVP’s entire P943 million FA fund to the DSWD and DOH, although OVP beneficiaries could still access the FA allocation by sending their requests to the two departments.

On apples-to-apples comparison, Gonzales said that in 2023, Duterte’s first full-year in office, she had P2.344 billion, including a P500 million confidential fund and a P920 million “financial assistance” allocation, while Robredo had a measly P428.6 million, without a confidential fund and a financial aid fund, during her first full-year in office in 2017.

This year, her second full year in office, Duterte had P1.874 billion, while Robredo had P543.9 million in 2018, Gonzales noted.

Next year, the incumbent Vice President’s third year in office, the OVP under Duterte will have P733.198 million but some senators have expressed intention to move for the increase in the amount.

In comparison, Robredo, who led the opposition under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, only had P663.4 million in 2019.

Robredo had P699.9 million in 2020, P900 million in 2021, which was her biggest budget, and P702 million in 2022, which she divided with her successor.

The OVP had P500 million in 2016, which was shared by Robredo and his predecessor, former vice president Jejomar Binay.

“Clearly, VP Sara enjoyed much bigger budgets that what VP Leni had,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said the House’s decision to reduce the OVP budget “is consistent with the vision of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on the principal job and duty of the Vice President.”

Pimentel has said Duterte should focus on her main duty as the country’s second highest elected official and successor to the presidency and should not implement programs that are not included in her constitutional mandate.