Jeers to Vice President Sara Duterte for ignoring legislators’ questions about the Office of the Vice President’s proposed 2025 budget during the House appropriations committee hearing early this week.
At the onset of Tuesday’s deliberations, August 27, it was clear that the vice president would not answer the questions of the lower house.
“I would like to forego the opportunity to defend the budget in a question-and-answer format. I will leave it up to the House to decide on the budget submitted,” she said. She added that it’s a waste of time since the answers are repeated.
She also engaged in verbal sparring with several lawmakers who grew frustrated with her brattish tactics.
At one point, she asked that House Appropriations Committee senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo, who heads the budget deliberations, be replaced by the Finance Committee chair.
“I request that the chairperson of the finance committee preside over this hearing,” Duterte said.
Quimbo asserted that it’s not within the power of the vice president to fire the presiding officer of the hearing.
Duterte also had a tussle with House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of the ACT Teachers party-list, who grilled her over the Commission on Audit’s notice of disallowance against her office and the P125 million confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) for 2022, which was reportedly used in a span of just 11 days.
To which Duterte retorted that the hearing should only be limited to her office’s proposed budget for 2025.
Castro, as a response, likened Duterte to a squid, that when threatened, squirts a black ink, after the vice president refused to address her queries.
The vice president then attacked Castro, saying why a person convicted of child abuse is still sitting in a seat of the House of Representatives.
There was also a time when Duterte motioned to a lawmaker to stop talking, and she kept on interrupting representatives even when she was not asked to talk.
The deliberation lasted for five hours and was eventually deferred as Duterte, being the resource person, repeatedly dodged the questions.
As a resource person, heads of agencies are compelled to explain the line items and the rationale of their proposed programs and projects. This interpellation is part of any budgetary process, be it national or local.
One can’t just “brat” their way out of this process.
