Vice President Sara Duterte stated that her office is “ready to work even without a budget” after skipping the House of Representatives hearing on its proposed 2025 funding.
In a video recorded on September 4 and uploaded on Wednesday, Duterte acknowledged discussions about “defunding” the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) P2-billion budget proposal for next year.
“We’ve heard about defunding… that it’s possible the OVP will only receive a one-peso budget,” she said. “We are ready, I am ready to work even without a budget.”
“Our office is small, our operations are small, so we can manage to work even without a budget,” she added.
The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives aims to cut P1 billion from the OVP’s proposed 2025 budget, citing redundancy in most of its projects, according to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro in an interview with ANC’s Headstart.
“The Committee on Appropriations seems resolved to reduce her budget… These are socio-economic projects that are redundant or duplicate efforts of other agencies,” Castro said, referring to OVP’s programs, including medical and burial assistance.
“We’re also looking to remove the P10 million budget for self-serving books and possibly reallocate it to the Department of Education (DepEd),” she added.
Castro was referring to the children’s book “Isang Kaibigan,” authored by Duterte and distributed to students. The book faced criticism online due to grammar errors and the inclusion of the Vice President’s photo, which some questioned.
The House Committee on Appropriations has not finalized the exact amount to be cut from the OVP’s 2025 budget, but Castro noted that Duterte’s office is unlikely to receive a “zero budget.”
“Personally, I’m against zeroing it out… That’s unfair,” she said.
“We also need to consider the personnel at the Office of the Vice President, their benefits, and other expenses.”
Duterte claimed that efforts to defund the OVP were politically motivated attacks against her.
“We know that’s part of the attacks, but we’ll continue doing what we need to do for the nation,” the Vice President said.
“If we look at history, the Vice President is always attacked because people see them as the next potential president, so those who want to be president will attack the Vice President first,” she added.
