Sen. Risa Hontiveros Questions Proposed Budget of Office of VP Sara Duterte, her Book Isang Kaibigan
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President and Senator Risa Hontiveros exchanged heated remarks over the proposed budget of the OVP and a book.
The proposed budget of the different offices and agencies of the government goes through several scrutiny as they are public funds. Previously, the Department of Budget and Management announced that the Office of the Vice President is seeking for a Php 2 billion fund for 2025.
The OVP is one of the government offices with a budget that became controversial last year. Vice Pres. Duterte elicited a lot of questions with the spending of the multi-million Confidential Funds of her office. According to DBM, in its 2025 budget proposal, the OVP has not included CIFs.
However, during the recent Senate finance committee’s hearing on the 2025 budget proposal of the Office of the Vice President, Senator Risa Hontiveros noticed that there are programs that are similar with the programs of the other state departments like the programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Hontiveros raised during the inquiry the “parallel” programs. According to Duterte, it is due to the politicized decision-making of the other government entities as the OVP has experienced getting their referrals to the agencies denied.
During the Senate finance committee hearing, Sen. Risa Hontiveros expressed that she will make a motion to re-allocate the budget for the assistance programs of the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte to relevant government agencies.
Hontiveros also asked about the book authored by Duterte entitled “Isang Kaibigan”. The 2025 budget proposal of the OVP includes the Php 10 million allotted for the distribution of the said book to the learners. It is amid the resignation of Vice Pres. Duterte as the DepEd secretary more than a month ago.
However, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not answer the question of Sen. Risa Hontiveros about the book she authored. Instead, she likened the Senator’s move of making a motion of re-allocating the budget for the OVP assistance programs to other agencies to politicizing as what she also raised prior.
Duterte claimed that the problem is that her name is written on the book and it will be distributed among the learners who have parents that can vote in the next election. She expressed that she will send Hontiveros a copy of the said book.
“It is a simple question, paulit-ulit na this is politicizing… I don’t appreciate this kind of attitude,” the Senator said.
Vice Pres. Duterte responded saying that she also does not understand and appreciate the behavior and attitude of Sen. Hontiveros. The Senator asserted that it is an inquiry and they are talking about public funds.
“Hindi po lahat about you, pera po ito ng taumbayan,” Hontiveros told Duterte.
Sen. Grace Poe intervened and asked Duterte to stick to the topic of the budget. Previously, the finance department tagged the OVP as one of the offices with the lowest utilization of budget and Duterte reacted to it.