MANILA – The Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) proposed ₱902.8-million budget for 2026 breezed through the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, despite pointed questions from minority lawmakers over Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s foreign trips and the controversial use of confidential funds.
Duterte-Carpio personally defended her office’s allocation during the brief hearing chaired by Nueva Ecija’s Cong. Mikaela Suansing, with Palawan’s Cong. Jose Alvarez sponsoring the budget.
She faced queries from Kabataan party-list’s Cong. Renee Louise Co and ACT Teachers’ Cong. Antonio Tinio before the panel swiftly terminated deliberations.
Co pressed the Vice President on whether public funds were used for her multiple overseas engagements. Duterte-Carpio clarified: “If I have activities for the OVP abroad, the three OVP personnel join the trips but if the trip is purely personal, they do not join. In the case of security personnel, this is something that is beyond the OVP, that is decided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
Tinio, meanwhile, revisited the OVP’s controversial confidential funds, citing alleged irregularities in accomplishment reports previously submitted to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
“1,322 out of 1,992 names … have no birth records,” Tinio said, citing examples that included “Mary Grace Piattos, Fernando Tempura, and even Chel Diokno.”
In response, Duterte-Carpio said: “The subject [of] confidential funds is a matter in impeachment proceedings which is archived but there is a pending motion for reconsideration in the Supreme Court.”
After the exchange, Caloocan City’s Cong. Edgar Erice moved to terminate the session, and the panel quickly approved the OVP’s proposed budget in less than an hour./PN
