Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s Office Requests Higher Budget for 2025
SARA DUTERTE – The Office of the Vice President is seeking for a P2 billion budget for 2025 with zero confidential funds.
In the Philippines, the government office that is in the frontline of checking and granting the approved budget proposals of the other government offices is the DBM or the Department of Budget and Management. The DBM speaks on the requests sought by the different offices.
Previously, the Department of Budget and Management or DBM revealed that the office of President Bongbong Marcos is requesting P1 billion for his 2025 trips. The said amount is lower than the previous travel fund sought by the office of the chief executive. According to the budget department, the proposal of the president’s office showed a reduction on both his domestic and foreign trips.
Recently, the Department of Budget and Management also spoke on the budget request of the Office of the Vice President. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is asking for a higher budget for 2025 but with zero confidential funds.
Based on the report, the DBM revealed that the Office of the Vice President is seeking for a P2.037 billion budget for 2025. Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that the current amount that the OVP is asking as its funds for 2025 is 8% higher than its last year’s budget.
Pangandaman said that P188.5 million of the total budget request of the OVP is intended for its personal services based on the proposal submitted by Duterte’s office. Based on the report, the OVP planned to allot P1.79 billion for the maintenance and other operating expenses and P56 million for capital outlay.
According to the DBM Secretary, the proposal of the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not include confidential funds. To recall, the previous confidential funds of the Vice President became controversial after it was questioned in the Senate for how fast the budget for national and peace and order effforts was spent.
Last year, the Office of the Vice President and several other state offices were denied of the CIFs following the controversy that hounded Duterte’s office. Here are the government offices that lost access to confidential funds in the 2024 national budget:
- Office of the Vice President (OVP)
- Department of Education (DepEd)
- Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)
- Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
- Department of Agriculture (DA)
The Php 1.23 billion for confidential funds were, instead, re-allocated and distributed among the National Security Council (NSC), the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).