Vice President Sara Duterte is herself responsible for the fate of her 200 employees whose jobs are now at risk because she refused to defend her office’s proposed 2 billion peso budget for 2025, Jay Khonghun said Monday , vice chair of the House of Representatives’ Panel on Good Government and Public Accountability.

Khonghun was referring to Duterte’s earlier statement that around 200 people could lose jobs if the Senate adopts the decision of the House of Representatives to allocate a budget of 733 million pesos to the OVP for 2025.

“Responsibility niya ‘yun (200 OVP employees). Dahil kung humarap siya in Congress and ipinagtanggol niya ‘yung budget niya and jinustify niya ‘yung budget niya, hindi mawawalan of labor ‘yung mga tao ngayon. So it’s his responsibility. Bakit niya ipapasa at Kongreso? » Khonghun said at a press conference.

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

“Binigyan namin siya ng pagkakataon para ipaglaban, I-justify yung kanyang’s budget. The problem is that Hindi na jinustify ‘yung budget niya. Sinabi niya, bahala at Kongreso. Ilang beses siya inimbitahan, hindi siya umattend, hindi siya pumunta to justify the kanyang budget. And yet, pagkatapos, ibabalik niya sa Kongreso ‘yung mawawalan ng trabaho?” he added.

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

The union representative and vice-president of the majority, Paolo Ortega V, for his part, declared that the presence of the vice-president to defend his budget would have made the difference for these 200 contract employees.

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

(Congress reportedly even increased its budget.)

The lawmakers were referring to the vice president’s decision not to answer questions from members of the House and Senate about her office’s proposed 2025 budget.

Additionally, administration lawmakers said Duterte cannot expect to keep the OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget if she is not transparent about how her office will use it .

“We need transparency and accountability when it comes to public funds, and we have seen how the OVP and the Vice President have avoided such transparency and accountability in the spending of public funds. Papaano pa natin sila pagkakatiwalaan (How can we trust them?),” Khonghun said.

“There is this problem with employing 200 people from the OVP because there are already problems with how they use their budget and their low utilization rate. How to increase their budget in such a situation? Common sense would dictate that if their funds are underutilized, they are not effective in their work and are not implementing the programs of their office,” Ortega added.

Ortega did not cite specifics, but ahead of Congress’s recommended budget reduction of the OVP’s 2025 budget from more than 2 billion pesos to 733 million pesos, the Commission on Audit revealed what follows. results on the OVP for its 2023 budget before the House Appropriations Committee:

• OVP rental 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 the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (P200,000), accumulated P2.2 million in cash advances.
• No clear guidelines in 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 bags before distribution

GMA News Online reached out to OVP for comment but has yet to receive a response at the time of publication.

Besides a possible budget cut for 2025, the Vice President is also facing a House Good Government and Public Accountability investigation into the use of the OVP and DepEd budget, during her term, including the disbursement of confidential funds.

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