MANILA, Philippines – After snubbing the House deliberations on her office’s proposed 2025 budget, Vice President Sara Duterte said that her office is ready to work with zero budget if Congress ultimately decides to defund the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

In a recorded interview released on Wednesday, September 11, the Vice President said she was aware of talks to defund the OVP amid escalating tensions with House members triggered by her refusal to respond to questions during the budget hearings as well as the OVP decision to skip the budget deliberations a day earlier.

“Narinig din namin na mayroong defunding, i-defund daw ang Office of the Vice President Budget, narinig din namin na posibleng piso lang ang ibigay na budget sa Office of the Vice President. Handa kami. Handa kami, handa ako, sa Office of the Vice President na magtrabaho kahit walang budget. Maliit lang ‘yung opisina namin,” Duterte said.

(We have also heard that there is talk of defunding the Office of the Vice President’s budget, and that it might be reduced to just one peso. We are ready. We are prepared, and I am prepared, for the Office of the Vice President to work even with no budget. Our office is small.)

“Maliit lang ‘yung operations namin kaya kayang-kaya namin na magtrahabo kahit walang budget. Alam naman namin na kaparte ‘yan ng pag-atake. Kaya kami, tutuloy-tuloy lang din kami sa kailangan namin gawin para sa bayan,” she said.

(We have small-scale operations so we can easily work even without a budget. We know that it’s part of the attacks. On our part, we will just continue with what we have to do for the people.)

The OVP is requesting a P2.037 billion budget for 2025 to fund its “small” operations, up from P1.885 billion this year. From 2022 to 2023, or before she broke off with the Marcos administration, Duterte received parliamentary courtesy from the House, with no questions asked during committee-level budget deliberations.

The House appropriations committee postponed, for the second time, the discussion on the 2025 OVP budget. The deferment followed Duterte and her entire office’s absence from the second scheduled hearing on their funding request on Tuesday, September 10.

The deferment of deliberations on the proposed OVP budget on Tuesday is subject to the following conditions, as agreed upon by the House panel: reduce the proposed OVP budget and “place certain funds on hold until further discussions are held.”

Duterte’s video statement on Wednesday wrapped up a three-part series of recorded interviews produced by the OVP. Since the initial round of budget deliberations with House lawmakers last August 27, neither the Vice President nor her spokesperson has given any media interviews to discuss the budget issues facing her office.

‘Scripted attacks’

In the third part of her interview, Duterte said she decided not to attend the House hearing or send a representative since it would just be a venue to “attack” her. She cited the August 27 hearing where lawmakers came ready with an audiovisual presentation and what she called a “prepared script.”

“Doon sa budget hearing na nangyari noong August 27, nakita ‘nyo na, mayroon na silang nakahandang PowerPoint presentation, mayroon na silang nakahandang audiovisual presentation, mayroon na silang nakahanda na script na binabasa, at ‘yung isa pa nga na congresswoman na sabi niya, “Wala akong panahon, basta mahaba ito. Hindi ko mabasa letter per letter.’ Pero kung makita mo, may nakahanda siya na mga sagot sa mga sinabi namin sa Commission on Audit,” she said.

(During the budget hearing on August 27, you saw that they had a prepared PowerPoint presentation, an audiovisual presentation, and a script they were reading from. One congresswoman even mentioned, “I don’t have time; it’s too lengthy. I can’t read it letter by letter.” But if you look closely, she had prepared responses to the comments we made to the Commission on Audit.)

She was apparently referring to Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro, who requested a copy of the letter from Duterte’s office opposing the House’s subpoena for the state auditors’ report on the OVP’s confidential funds. Luistro subsequently challenged the arguments made by Duterte in that letter. (READ: Sara Duterte’s messy exchanges with lawmakers over her budget)

As part of their mandate to scrutinize budget requests, lawmakers prepare for budget hearings of agencies and bring data and materials with them to support their questions. Reading prepared statements or reading from prepared notes are expected in budget hearings. In the past, however, the OVP usually breezed through budget hearings with no questions asked in observance of the tradition of parliamentary courtesy.

In the August 27 hearing, Duterte repeatedly dodged House members’ questions about her past confidential expenses, which totaled P775 million for the OVP and the DepEd from 2022 to 2023. Her off-topic responses and rude comments led the House panel to defer her budget request.

Romualdez-Makabayan bloc conspiracy?

Duterte had accused Speaker Martin Romualdez and House committee appropriations chairman Zaldy Co of meddling in the 2023 budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) when she was the education secretary, which Co denied.

She addressed the issue in her interview released on Wednesday, where she recalled a supposed conversation with one of her House allies in September 2023, or before the OVP’s request for confidential funds for 2024 was rejected. She claimed that Co had asked the unnamed congressman if Duterte would get mad if her secret funds would be removed.

“Sabi niya, lumapit daw sa kanya si Cong. Co at sinabihan siya na ‘Tatanggalin namin ang confidential funds ni Inday Sara. Hindi ba siya magagalit?’ Ang sagot naman sa kanya ng kaibigan ko na congressman, ‘Alam mo, si Inday Sara, walang pakialam sa pera ‘yan. Magtatrabaho ‘yan kahit anong budget. Alam niya ‘yan dahil alam din niya na limitado ang pera ng gobyerno, kaya magtatrabaho ‘yan,'” she said.

(He said that Congressman Co approached him and said, “We’re going to remove Inday Sara’s confidential funds. Won’t she be upset?’ My friend, a congressman, responded, “You know Inday Sara; she doesn’t care about the money. She’ll work regardless of the budget. She understands that government funds are limited, so she’ll get the job done.”)

Duterte also claimed that the Makabayan bloc, which includes her staunch critic ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, is allegedly conspiring with Romualdez to bring her down. She claimed that the Makabayan bloc in the House was behind the removal of her confidential funds request for 2024, so that Romualdez would supposedly get the support of the bloc and the New People’s Army.

The OVP was only one of five agencies stripped of confidential funds for 2024, along with the Department of Education then under Duterte, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Foreign Affairs. The funds were realigned to agencies at the forefront of efforts to assert the Philippines’ territorial rights in the West Philippine Sea.

Rappler has reached out to Co, Romualdez, and the Makabayan bloc for their reactions, but they have yet to reply as of posting time. We will update this story once they do.

Since leaving the Marcos Cabinet, Duterte has been in the spotlight due to congressional scrutiny of her budget utilization in the past years, as well as COA reports on the DepEd and the notice of disallowance on P73 million OVP confidential funds in 2022.

– Rappler.com