Senate adopts P1.3-billion House cut in OVP budget

Sara's aide flies to US, spokesman resigns

-  CECILLE SUERTE FELIPE and DELON PORCALLA

The Senate adopted the House of Representatives' P1.3-billion cut in the 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), as the Upper Chamber formally started discussions on the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget.

The 14-page Senate finance committee report posted on its website indicated that the senators retained the House version of the OVP budget with P733.198 million, from the initial proposal of P2.037 billion, while the Office of the President retained its P10.446billion proposed allocation.

In a chance interview with Senate reporters, Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate finance committee, admitted that the Senate adopted the House version of the cut on the OVP budget.

"Yes, the Senate adopted the House version of the OVP budget cut. We reached out several times to the Office of the Vice President, requesting they submit documents to clarify issues regarding their budget, but they have not submitted them as of today. So we decided to retain the GAB (General Appropriations Bill) amount pending submission and review of these documents."

"While we cannot account for movements in the figures on an apples-to-apples basis, we can say that we retained the original budget for the relevant item in DSWD while we increased further the item under the DOH budget," Poe noted, referring to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health.

Poe said the proposed 2025 national budget emphasized significant priorities in social services, health, education, jobs, technology and infrastructure and human development. She underscored the imperative for accountability in every peso spent in the budget.

"This budget isn't just a series of numbers. It's a blueprint of our priorities, the most important investment of our government and the heartbeat of our nation's future," Poe said in her sponsorship of the GAB containing the P6.352trillion proposed budget.