Gatchalian questions Duterte’s absence at OVP budget hearing

MANILA, Philippines — Saying that agency heads traditionally appear before Congress to defend their budgets, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian questioned Vice President Sara Duterte’s absence at the Senate on Thursday to defend her office’s proposed P785.2-million appropriation for 2027.

Instead of Duterte, her chief of staff, lawyer Zuleika Lopez, and other Office of the Vice President (OVP) officials faced the Senate subcommittee on finance, headed by Sen. JV Ejercito.

“I only have one question. Atty. Zuleika, as chief of staff, may I know where the vice president is?” Gatchalian asked.

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“Traditionally, during budget deliberations like this, the head of the office comes here to defend their budget. You know that,” he added.

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The Senate chief recalled that when he was chairman of the finance committee, Duterte took time to appear before the Senate to defend her office’s budget last year.

“So, may I know for the record where our esteemed vice president is?” Gatchalian asked again.

Lopez told the panel that the vice president could not attend the budget hearing because she was representing her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, “in the inurnment of our long-serving city planner in Davao City.”

“The schedule for the inurnment is today, October 20. So she’s the representative of the former president,” the chief of staff explained.

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READ: Sara Duterte: Gov’t using Laos travel, China issues to ‘take me down’ 

Gatchalian expressed hope that the vice president could personally defend the OVP budget in the plenary, explaining that committee-level deliberations were just the first step in the budget process.

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“We have a second step, which is plenary. And we would hope that she can give time to represent her office and defend her budget in plenary,” he said.

Despite Duterte’s absence, the panel proceeded to approve the OVP’s budget proposal, which is 11.7 percent lower than this year’s P889.236-million allocation.

READ: Senate panel swiftly approves OVP’s proposed 2027 budget

At the start of the hearing, Ejercito acknowledged the tradition of extending inter-parliamentary courtesy to the OVP.

He also assured the public that the proposed 2027 expenditure program would be reviewed with due diligence.

Sen. Imee Marcos agreed with Ejercito that the traditional courtesy should be extended to the OVP even without Duterte.

“We just accorded the parliamentary courtesy being accorded to the executive department, and being the second highest official of the land, it is just fitting to extend courtesy to the vice president, whatever the situation is,” Ejercito later told reporters.

The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, is trying the case against Duterte, who has been accused of amassing unexplained wealth and failing to disclose all her assets.

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Her alleged misuse of confidential funds was originally included in the case, but the prosecution later dropped three of the four articles of impeachment to focus on the remaining allegation of unexplained and undeclared wealth. /mcm