Duterte seeks P733-M OVP budget for 2026
Anticipating her request for a higher budget to be rejected, Vice President Sara Duterte said on Monday that her office had submitted a request for a P733-million budget for 2026, roughly the same allocation as this year.
“For the 2026 budget, we submitted a proposal of P733 million, which is not far from the approximately P700 million that was given last year for the OVP (Office of the Vice President),” Duterte said in a press conference in Davao City.
According to her, the P733 million will fund the OVP’s projects and some of her “flagship programs.” The proposal also included “a little” for education although she did not elaborate.
It was the first time the OVP under Duterte sought a budget below a billion pesos. Its 2023 budget was P2.3 billion and P1.87 billion in 2024.
“I already expect that [a higher] budget request for the Office of the Vice President will not be granted since we are not allied with the administration and from what we saw last year, if you are not with them and not allied with them, you will not get the funds needed for your office’s projects,” Duterte told reporters when asked why she submitted a low budget request.
“It’s because I don’t want the personnel of the Office of the Vice President to be humiliated again, especially if we face the House of Representatives or the Senate where we have to face their members,” she said.
Drastic cut
Last year, Duterte sought a P2.037-billion budget for the OVP for fiscal year 2025. The amount, however, was drastically reduced to P733 million, after a House committee recommended that the money be realigned to other agencies.
This was after Duterte traded barbs with House lawmakers and some senators after she was asked to explain allegations that millions of pesos in confidential funds allocated to the OVP and Department of Education, which she used to head, were misused. She later refused to attend subsequent hearings.
The allegations have become one of the bases for the impeachment complaint against Duterte.
