OVP’s P2.4 billion budget breezes through House

MANILA, Philippines — It was a walk in the park for Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte as the House of Representatives committee on appropriations terminated its budget deliberation on her office’s proposed P2.4-billion budget for 2024 without even asking her a single question.

Barely 22 minutes into the hearing or after Duterte’s opening remarks and Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, appropriations committee senior vice chair, and the Office of the Vice President (OVP)’s audio-visual presentation, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos moved for the deliberation to end.

“In line with the long-standing tradition of giving the Office of the Vice President parliamentary courtesy I move to terminate the budget (hearing) of the OVP,” Marcos said.

This was immediately opposed by Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, but they were outvoted by the other panel members.

Twenty-one panel members manifested for the approval of Marcos’ motion, according to Davao de Oro 1st District Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora, committee vice chair, who then declared the OVP’s proposed budget as “approved.”

Castro tried to protest, as she emphasized that many issues were waiting for Duterte’s response and clarification.

“May I explain my vote, why I do not like that the budget hearing of the OVP be terminated. I know we have rights as the minority bloc. May we explain why we voted ‘no’?” Castro asked.

To which Zamora replied: “With all due respect, this representation would like to request the Honorable Castro to just please submit the manifestation to the committee on appropriations.”

Castro went on mentioning the alleged use by the Department of Education (DepEd) of some P125 million in unauthorized confidential fund (CF), among other issues. She was still speaking when her microphone was turned off.

Duterte told the panel that the OVP is seeking a funding of P2.385 billion next year to “support our operations, continue our programs and extend the reach of OVP services throughout the country.”

The amount is 1.22 percent higher than the P2.356-billion funds earmarked for the OVP under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

In a statement, Castro lambasted what she described as the “hypocrisy of the OVP (in) saying that they would explain their P125-million confidential fund in 2022, but now used the House majority to muzzle our queries.”

Castro said there are “many things that the OVP should explain to the public.”

“In fact, the Vice President herself should provide an explanation during the budget hearing, and she is here,” she said.

“So we wonder why this decision was made, and we are truly enraged about this incident because we were fully prepared and ready to ask our questions to enlighten the public about how this P125-million confidential fund was spent, which is not even included in the 2022 GAA budget,” she added.

Manuel manifested against the termination of the OVP budget hearing during the budget deliberation for the DepEd.

“I just want to put on record that as a youth representative, I am in a position to question tradition that no longer works and serves as barrier to healthy discussion about allocation and the use of public funds,” he said.

“Our tradition of extending parliamentary courtesy stops us in the legislative branch to do our job for which we are paid by the Filipino people. We should have check and balance,” he added.

The lawmaker said he does not want Congress to be complicit to illegal fund use by agencies in the executive branch, so he asked that he be allowed to also put on record also his point of order in the earlier proceedings.

Nothing irregular

As yesterday’s budget deliberations took place, Duterte maintained that there was nothing irregular or unauthorized in the spending of the P125-million CF allocated to her office months after her election last year.

The Vice President expressed gratitude to the House appropriations committee for the swift approval of the OVP’s proposed budget for next year.

She also addressed, without providing specific details, the questions regarding the CF that her office received last year, even though there was no provision for it in the 2022 GAA.

Castro earlier said that the OVP spent the entire fund in just 19 days, from Dec. 13 to 31 last year.

“For the 2022 CF in the amount of P125 million, the OVP has already planned and identified events, activities and projects to be covered by the CF as early as August,” Duterte said in her statement.

“There was nothing irregular or unauthorized about its spending, and the required liquidation and accomplishment reports have been submitted to the oversight agencies,” she added.

The Vice President maintained that the Makabayan bloc, which is questioning the realignment of the fund, “doesn’t have any substantive information to back up imputations of misuse.”

She earlier welcomed any investigation into the matter.

Augmentation

Amid the developments, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) reiterated its call on lawmakers to augment the budget for education to help address the learning crisis.

The ACT issued the statement in time for Congress’ deliberation on the DepEd’s proposed 2024 budget.

The proposed budget for the entire education sector – P924.7 billion – accounts for just 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, significantly lower than the United Nations standard of six percent, according to the group.

The DepEd will receive the bulk of the proposed education budget next year at P758.6 billion, which includes automatic appropriations.

“The budget must be augmented to be responsive to addressing worsening shortages,” the ACT said.

The group scored the proposal to again give the DepEd a CF of P150 million, saying it has questionable basis since “this is in no way relevant to its mandate in ensuring quality education.”

Education officials led by Duterte have repeatedly maintained that the funds would be used to address national security concerns, such as the supposed recruitment of students for illegal activities.

For the ACT, the DepEd’s focus must be on improving conditions for students and teachers and not on activities that it said would intensify anti-labor and union rights programs.

The group said the government must hire 147,000 new teachers and build around 175,000 classrooms to be able to lower class sizes to 35.

The DepEd earlier confirmed that the classroom shortage has reached 159,000.

5,000 posts OK’d

Meanwhile, the Department of Budget and Management has approved the creation of 5,000 non-teaching positions nationwide to address the lack of manpower in the education sector.

In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said this is aimed at providing additional manpower and support to educators, especially as the new school year begins.

The non-teaching items consist of 3,500 administrative officer II positions intended to relieve teachers of administrative tasks that support operations.

Also included are 1,500 project development officer I positions to complement other non-teaching personnel in schools by facilitating the implementation of various activities mandated by the DepEd Central Office.

Both positions are entitled to the Salary Grade 11 equivalent of P27,000 based on the fourth tranche monthly salary schedule for civilian personnel of the government.

The items will be deployed in various schools division offices across all regions except in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Funding requirements for the positions will be charged against the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund under next year’s budget. –  Janvic Mateo, Louise Maureen Simeon, Elizabeth Marcelo