Vice President Sara Duterte appeared Wednesday at the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability initial deliberation on the proposed 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to address several issues linked to her use of public funds.
The deliberation was called to assert the lawmakers’ legitimate exercise of their “power of the purse,” according to Manila Rep. Joel Chua, who chaired the panel. He said the discussion aims to strike the balance between extending parliamentary courtesy and exercising budget oversight.
Committee member and Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano delivered a privilege speech on the subject, where he criticized Duterte for skipping subsequent public hearings on her proposed 2025 OVP budget.
“The refusal of Vice President Sara Duterte to answer questions on her proposed budget her questionable expenses in the previous OVP budgets, which the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged, are the reasons why we’re here today,” Valeriano said.
He called out Duterte for ‘expressly rejecting any questions about the OVP budget even before those questions were put forward.’
“Her claim of leaving it to the House of Representatives to do what it thinks is right is just a palusot, a smokescreen, a cover because she does not want to provide proof for the numbers she stated in her power point presentation,” Valeriano said.
The lawmaker was referring to the proposed budget for the OVP’s socioeconomic programs, which were supposedly intended for Metro Manila only and did not indicate any allocation for the provinces.
Valeriano noted it has been three weeks since the first OVP budget hearing at the House of Representatives yet the Vice President or anyone from her office have yet to submit “solid documents” that would back up their presentation.
“She expected us to take at face value the figures in her presentation when there is much reason for us here in Congress to doubt the veracity of the figures in that presentation. We have not seen any paper trail or electronic trail that will serve as evidence of beneficiaries or partnership agreements,” he said.
Duterte, however, did not take these statements lightly. She refused to take an oath before the deliberation started, arguing that she accepted the invitation as a “resource person” and not as a “witness.”
Her ally, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, defended the Vice President citing a Supreme Court ruling. Chua accepted their point and allowed Duterte to deliberation to proceed without obliging Duterte to take the oath.
When it was her turn to speak, the former presidential daughter outright accused some lawmakers present of engaging in a “well-funded and coordinated political attack” that is meant to influence voters.
Duterte denied insinuations that the OVP misused funds and said she attended the inquiry—in response to the invitation of the said House committee dated September 13—to show that they “have not done anything wrong.”
“I am appearing before you today, not only as the head of office, but more importantly as the duly authorized representative of all officials of the OVP simply because we have not done anything wrong. There is no misuse of funds,” Duterte said.
She told lawmakers that she would prefer to address audit findings before the COA itself. “It is clear to me that this inquiry is not about misused funds, accountability or good governance. Instead, it is solely aimed at discrediting my name and my office to prevent future political contests,” she said.
“What we are witnessing now is no ordinary legislative inquiry. This exercise is a well-funded and coordinated political attack. This much is evident from the very words of the privilege speech that prompted this inquiry—a speech that simply meant to say ‘Do not vote for Sara on 2028.”
