Duterte expects House to cut 2026 budget proposal
Metro Manila, Philippines - Vice President Sara Duterte said she is expecting cuts to her office's proposed budget next year in the House of Representatives deliberations.
In an interview on Monday, Aug. 11, Duterte said the House review of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget “will be the same (as) last year” with the same leadership in the chamber.
“Hindi naman nagbago ang administration eh. ‘Yan pa rin ang pangulo natin, yan pa rin ang Speaker of the House of Representatives natin. So wala na tayong ma-expect na ibibigay para sa Office of the Vice President…And of course, ang expectation natin is pababaan ‘yan pagdating sa House of Representatives,” she said.
[The administration hasn't changed. We still have the same president, and we still have the same Speaker of the House of Representatives. So, we shouldn't expect anything to be allocated for the Office of the Vice President… And, of course, we expect the House of Representatives to reduce it.]
The Department of Budget Management has approved P903 million for the OVP - higher than the office’s earlier proposal to copy the 2025 funding at P733 million.
During the 2024 deliberations, the OVP budget was slashed by P1.3 billion after intense congressional scrutiny on the agency spending.
Ruth Castelo, Duterte’s spokesperson, earlier said the office will no longer seek confidential funds for 2026.
Frequent traveler
Meanwhile, the vice president also dismissed critics who called out her constant trips abroad.
ACT Teacher’s party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio on Monday, Aug. 11, said Duterte will continue to face scrutiny over her fund use and performance, including what he called the vice president’s habitual absence.
“Habitual absence saan? Hindi ko alam kung ano yung pinagsasabi nila ng habitual absence. As I said, ito na naman yung style ng mga tao na anti-Duterte na nagbibigay lang ng akusasyon kung saan-saan at wala namang basehan, walang ebidensya,” Duterte said when asked for comment.
[Translation: Habitual absence, where? I don't know what they're talking about with this so-called habitual absence. As I said, this is just the same tactic of the anti-Duterte people who keep making accusations left and right without any basis, without any evidence.]
In July, the vice president went to The Hague, Netherlands to visit her father and former President Rodrigo Duterte who is detained at an International Criminal Court facility. She also met with the Filipino community in South Korea in the same month.
Duterte said she is traveling outside the country as Filipinos abroad are supposedly expressing frustration with the administration.
The Palace said frequent travel is not a problem-solver.
“At hindi po sagot ang pagbibiyahe para masolusyunan kung may problema man ang bansa. Hindi po trabaho ng bise presidente at wala po sa konstitusyon na kailangan siyang magbiyahe para siraan ang Pangulo at para hilingin sa taumbayan ang pagbagsak at pagtanggal sa puwesto,” Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said on Tuesday, Aug. 12.
[Translation: And traveling abroad is not the answer to solving whatever problems the country may have. It is not the vice president's job, and nowhere in the Constitution does it say that she needs to travel just to criticize the president and urge the public to bring down or remove him from office.]
