Sara's expenditures face increased scrutiny from Congress

On Tuesday, Vice President Sara Duterte faced further scrutiny in Congress. Her absence from the House budget hearing led lawmakers to propose either reducing or reallocating the funds she requested for her office. Meanwhile, senators highlighted concerns about her alleged mismanagement of nearly a third of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) budget in 2023, her final year as its head.

The House appropriations committee chose to postpone the discussion on the proposed P2-billion budget for the Office of the Vice President (OVP), citing conditions such as the potential reduction of the proposed budget or placing certain funds on hold pending further deliberations.

 By this action, which was proposed by Ako Bicol Rep. Jil Bongalon and unanimously supported by the panel, Vice President Sara Duterte missed her final opportunity to defend her office's budget during the committee meeting.

This marks the second occasion on which the Office of the Vice President has struggled with budget deliberations, a process usually handled smoothly for the top two positions in the country.

House Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, who sponsored the OVP budget, announced that the discussions would now proceed to the plenary. There, the 300-member House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez, may consider reducing the OVP’s social services budget and reallocating those funds to other government agencies.

Appropriations panel chair and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co stated that he would indeed recommend such a measure, emphasizing that Duterte could no longer be trusted with public funds.

"Should we allocate P2 billion for the OVP, which Duterte claims will be used to assist the poor? Instead, these funds should go to the appropriate agency. We will not permit even a single peso to be wasted again," Co declared during the hearing.

This stance followed the panel's discussion of various irregularities in the OVP’s 2023 budget, as identified by the Commission on Audit (COA). Issues included "overpriced" rental costs for the OVP's satellite offices and the significantly low expenditure on its flagship livelihood project.

1-Rider Rep. Rodge Gutierrez, Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles, and Zambales Rep. Doris Maniquiz highlighted a COA report showing that the OVP spent PHP 53.5 million on leasing 10 satellite offices nationwide, averaging around PHP 4.4 million per office.

Maniquiz questioned whether such expenses were necessary, suggesting that the services provided by these satellite offices duplicated those already offered by other government agencies, such as the Department of Labor and Employment and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel pointed out that the OVP’s Magnegosyo Ta Day livelihood program received PHP 150 million but utilized only PHP 600,000, or 0.4 percent, by 2023. Brosas called this a clear waste of funds that could be redirected to more deserving sectors.

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro raised concerns about food items worth over PHP 148,000 for the OVP’s Kalusugan Food Truck program, noting they were near expiration and stored in poor conditions. He drew a comparison to a similar issue found in the DepEd's school-based feeding program during Duterte’s tenure.

Luistro also criticized the OVP for improperly liquidating PHP 65 million allocated for welfare goods, highlighting missing documentation for its PanSarap Buns pilot testing and yearend food packs. He expressed concern that this might indicate "ghost deliveries."

Bongalon and Adiong revealed that Duterte had not yet formally contested a notice of disallowance on PHP 73 million of her office's PHP 125-million confidential funds for 2022, despite her claims of cooperation with auditors. The OVP has until February to address the notice.

In the Senate, Sen. Risa Hontiveros questioned why the DepEd borrowed PHP 6 billion from the World Bank in 2023 for teacher upskilling despite failing to use government funds effectively for the same purpose. She noted COA findings of significant accounting deficiencies in the DepEd's implementation of programs, including unpaid mandatory contributions and unliquidated cash advances.

Hontiveros also inquired about the rationale behind the DepEd's loan for a training program, given the inefficiency in utilizing previously allocated funds. Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara explained that the loan was intended for specific regions and mentioned additional costs if the project’s targets were not met by 2028.