Sen. Jinggoy Estrada Chides “Senator” during Senate Hearing of OVP’s Proposed Budget for 2026
JINGGOY ESTRADA – The Senator floated the idea of giving the senators’ budget insertions to Vice President Sara Duterte’s office.
The Senate held the budget hearing over the proposed fund of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office amounting to Php 902.895 million. The Vice President attended the inquiry at the upper chamber. Several members of the so-called Duterte bloc in the Senate were also present during the budget talks.
The Senate panel swiftly approved the P902.895 million budget request of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office. Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri introduced a motion to extend parliamentary courtesy to the OVP. According to him, the proposed budget of Duterte’s office is allegedly “lean and mean” already.
The senators supported the motion. Known Duterte-ally Sen. Bato dela Rosa seconded the motion. After asking for objections wherein there was none, Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian approved the motion.
At the Senate hearing over the OVP’s proposed budget for 2026, Sen. Bong Go offered if it would be allowed that some budget of his office will be transferred to Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office. He called among his fellow senators for support to the Vice President for her to be a “working vice president”.
Based on a post of News5, during the Senate hearing on the proposed budget of the OVP for 2026, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada chided the ‘senator’ over the alleged budget insertions of the Senate lawmakers in the 19th Congress. He proposed that the budget insertions will be given to Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office.
“Total naman merong nagsabi na isang senador na malaki insertion natin, ibigay na natin sa Office of the Vice President para maging working vice president siya,” Estrada said.
Based on the post, at the Senate hearing, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada stressed that he fully supports the proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President. Following his statement floating the idea of giving the budget insertions to Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office, Sen. Robin Padilla had a fist-bump with Estrada.
Although the Vice President previously claimed that she expects budget cuts from the proposed fund of the OVP, the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte stressed that more programs can be accomplished if the funding is bigger.