House panel cuts nearly ₱1.3 billion from proposed OVP budget

Metro Manila, Philippines – The proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) ended up ₱1.3 billion less upon the recommendation of the House appropriations committee on Thursday, Sept. 12.

In a press briefing, panel vice-chairperson and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo said the committee approved ₱733.2 million from ₱2.04 billion - ₱1.293 billion less than the original amount. The current OVP budget is ₱1.8 billion.

The amount is higher by just ₱31 million when the office was under Vice President Leni Robredo in 2022, or ₱702 million. The Duterte administration was politically at odds as well with the vice president.

Meanwhile, Quimbo said a major portion of the OVP budget cut is from financial assistance programs, zeroing out the whole ₱947.4-million funding.

The lease expense on 12 OVP satellite offices was down by ₱48 million.

“Tila napakaraming opisina. Bakit? Whereas previous vice presidents didn’t have those nationwide offices. Bakit napakaraming social programs na i-implement, tila redundant,” said Quimbo.

[Translation: There are a lot of offices. Why so? Previous vice presidents didn’t have those nationwide offices. Why are there so many social programs implemented? It’s redundant]

Other budget cuts are as follows:

+ ₱200,000, 000 - supplies

+ ₱92,408,000 - personnel services for consultants

+ ₱5 million - utility expenses

Quimbo said funds will be realigned to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for its Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, as well as to the Department of Health’s Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients.

She said the OVP’s low budget use rate in previous years was a factor in the cuts.

“Ang dami pong natirang pondo mula sa social programs. At the same time, meron ding lumabas na mga problema, implementation problems resulting in lack of implementation details,” Quimbo said.

[Translation: There were a lot of spare funds on social programs. At the same time, there were also issues on implementation resulting in lack of implementation details.]

Quimbo said she is hoping Duterte and her staff would show up in plenary debates beginning next week.

NewsWatch Plus sought out the OVP for a statement but it has yet to respond.