Vice President Sara Duterte has herself to blame for the fate of her 200 employees whose jobs are now at risk because she refused to defend her office’s proposed P2025 budget for 2025, said Vice Speaker Jefferson ‘Jay’ Khonghun, the House Good Government and Panel for public accountability. Monday.

Khonghun was referring to Duterte’s earlier statement that about 200 personnel could lose job if the Senate will adopt the resolution of the House of Representatives to allocate the P733 million budget to the OVP for 2025.

“Responsibility niya ‘yun (200 OVP employees). Dahil kung humarap siya sa congress on iangtanggol niya ‘yung budget niya and jinustify niya ‘yung budget niya, hindi mawawalan ng trabaho ‘yung mga tao ngayon. So it is her responsibility. Bakit niya ipapasa sa Kongreso?” Khonghun said at a press conference.

(That 200 employees are her responsibility. Had she come here and defended, justified her office’s proposed budget for next year, these people will not lose their jobs. Why is she sending it to Congress?)

“Binigyan namin siya ng silaan para ipaglaban, I justify ‘yung kanyang budget. The problem is, hindi na jinustify ‘yung budget niya. Siniba niya, Bahala ang Kongreso. Ilang beses siya inimbitahan, hindi siya umattend, hindi siya hinstaf para i-justify ang kanyang budget. And yet, ibabalik niya sa Kongreso ‘yung mawawan ng trabaho?” he added.

(We gave her opportunities to fight for, justify her proposed budget. She said it’s up to Congress. She was invited but she didn’t show up. And now she’s pointing the finger at Congress over this?)

La Union Representative and Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V, for his part, said the Vice President showing up to defend her budget would have made the difference for the 200 contract workers.

“Baka konsume pa (ang budget nila kung dinepensahan niya),” Ortega added.

(Congress would even have increased its budget.)

The lawmakers cited the vice president’s decision not to field questions on her office’s P2025 budget proposal from members of the House and Senate.

Furthermore, administration lawmakers said Duterte cannot expect to keep the OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget unless she is open about how her office will use it.

“We need transparency and accountability for government funds, and we have seen how the OVP and the vice president avoided such transparency and accountability when they spent government funds. Papaano pa natin sila sila sila sila (How can we trust them?),” Khonghun said.

“There is this problem with the hiring of 200 OVP staff because there are already questions about how they use their budget and their low utilization rate. How can we increase their budget in such a situation? Common sense would dictate that if their funds are underutilized , they are not efficient in their jobs and implementing their office programs, Ortega added.

Ortega did not cite details but before the recommended budget cut by Congress to the OVP’s 2025 budget cut to P733 million from over P2 billion, the Commission on Audit revealed the following bargain on OVP for its 2023 budget before the House Appropriations Panel:

• OVP’s leasing expenses increased to P53 million in 2023 from P29 million in 2022
• Only P600,000 of the P150 million budget for Magnegosyo Ta Day was used
• Each of the 10 satellite offices, except for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (P200,000), collected P2.2 million in cash advances.
• No clear guidelines for the distribution of bags and books (“Isang Kaibigan”) for students
• 53 schools in the PagbaBAGo program (bag distribution) do not have a predetermined list of beneficiaries
• Students have pre-signed forms confirming receipt of the bags prior to distribution

GMA News Online reached out to OVP for comment but has yet to receive a response as of press time.

Aside from a possible reduced budget for 2025, the vice president is also facing an investigation by the Good Government and Public Accountability Panel on the budget use of the OVP and DepEd, during her tenure, including the disbursement of confidential funds.

The said investigation will resume on November 20, but the vice president has already said that she will not attend that because lawmakers didn’t ask her questions when she went there in September. Duterte refused to take his oath before she gave her testimony that time.—AOL/RF, GMA Integrated News