PRESIDENT FERDINAND Marcos Jr. on Wednesday belied the claims of Vice President Sara Duterte that Congress is politicizing the hearing for her office’s 2025 budget.
Marcos, who was conducting an aerial inspection of areas affected by Tropical Storm Enteng when asked about the issue, said every single government agency goes through the budget process, adding that it serves as avenue for legislators to gather relevant information as to how agencies use their budget.
“This is a budget hearing ... This is something that every single government agency has to do. It's a hearing, there's no politics in it. We do it every year, we do it with the same department, we do it...That process is well established, it has nothing to do with politics,” Marcos said.
“It has to do with the budget, so I don't know how can she characterized these things, which is essentially an information gathering exercise for the House and for the Senate, so that they know what the budget will look like. So malayo sa politika ‘yun (That is far from politics),” he said.
Questions on the Office of the Vice President’s confidential funds in 2022 triggered heated discussions during the recent House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on the OVP’s proposed 2025 budget.
Duterte claimed she was being crucified in the hearing as lawmakers raise several issues, including the OVP spending PHP125 million worth confidential funds in just 11 days in 2022, her unusually high number of security personnel, as well as her children's book.
The latest committee deliberations on the OVP's proposed budget lasted for about five hours, way longer from the usual swift approval within a matter of minutes in previous years due to parliamentary courtesy accorded to the Vice President.
The next hearing is scheduled on Sept. 10.
No more communications
Meanwhile, Marcos confirmed that he has not spoken with the Vice President since she stepped down from the Cabinet.
Duterte stepped down as education secretary and vice chairperson of the government’s anti-communist task force on June 19.
"The last time I spoke to her was when she handed me her resignation. We haven't spoken since," Marcos said.
Marcos and Duterte ran and won convincingly under the UniTeam Coalition in the 2022 election.
As to the apology of Duterte to members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) for asking them to support him in the 2022 polls, the President said it is the Vice President's prerogative.
"That's her prerogative. I still don't understand why. That is her wish, wala tayong magagawa (we can't do anything)," he said.
KOJC leader Apollo Quiboloy, a known ally of the Duterte clan in Davao City, is now being hunted down by law enforcers for human trafficking cases. (Darryl John Esguerra)
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