Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero Thinks Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Not Used To Being Asked
CHIZ ESCUDERO – The Senate President affirmed to having watched the spar of Vice President Sara Duterte with some members of the House of Representatives.
For 2025, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) is asking for a P2 billion budget as previously announced by the Department of Budget and Management. According to the DBM, the budget proposal has zero confidential funds.
In 2023, the OVP faced a lot of criticisms and questioning over its rapid spending of its P125 million Confidential Funds reportedly within 11 days. Since then, the OVP was denied to have CIFs. However, there are also features of the 2025 budget proposal that hooked the attention of the lawmakers.
During the Senate hearing of the 2025 budget proposal of the OVP, Senator Risa Hontiveros cited that some of the assistance programs of the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is similar to the assistance programs offered by the other government agencies. The Vice President claimed that there were incidents when referrals from the OVP were denied.
Hontiveros move to make a motion to re-allocate the assistance programs budget to relevant agencies. The Senate hearing led to a heated exchange between Sen. Hontiveros and Vice Pres. Duterte after the former noticed the Php 10 million allocation for the distribution of the book entitled Isang Kaibigan.
The book Isang Kaibigan was written by Duterte. Amid the criticisms, the Vice President claimed that she will write another book about the betrayal of a friend.
Recently, the 2025 proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President was discussed in the House of Representatives. Like what happened during the Senate hearing, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte got involved in another heated exchange of statements with the House members. She snubbed the questions of ACT Teachers Party List Representative France Castro.
Duterte also asked the presiding officer to be changed which House budget committee senior vice chairperson Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo denied to grant. She stressed to the Vice President that it is not within her call.
Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero admitted to having watched the spar between Vice Pres. Sara Duterte and some House members of the 2025 budget proposal of the OVP. Based on a report on Inquirer, the Senate President gave his take on the heated exchange of statements.
“Hangga’t maaari ayokong panghimasukan ang proseso ng Kamara, but my take on it… tila hindi sang-ayon at sanay si Vice President Duterte na tinatanong siya at hindi siya sinang-ayunan,” Senate Pres. Escudero said.
Based on the report, Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero also noticed that Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is not on a friendly tie with some members of the House. She hopes that it will change in the next hearing.