The decision of the Senate Finance Committee to adopt the House version of the 2025 budget slashing P1.3 Billion from the Office of the Vice President is disappointing to say the least.
It proves that Vice President Sara Duterte was right all along in leaving the fate of the OVP at the hands of the Marcos administration.
The Office of the Vice President under Vice President Duterte has been performing beyond the call of duty as its response to the relief operations after typhoon “Kristine” is showing. It has reached out to serve the needs of many Filipinos including those in places long neglected by the national government. With the limited budget that it has compared to other agencies, the OVP is rising to the challenge of responding to the people’s needs in these very difficult times.
We all know why the OVP budget was emasculated. Stripped of the legal niceties, the budget slash was a foregone conclusion. It is not because of any shortcoming or anomaly that it has done – because there is none – but because Vice President Duterte poses a threat to the Marcos administration and to Speaker Martin Romualdez who wants to succeed his cousin.
Vice President Duterte deserves to hold her head high because of what she is doing and does not deserve the treatment she is getting, first from the House and now the Senate.
It is a sad day not so much for the OVP because it has gotten used to make do with what it has but more so for ordinary Filipinos who will be deprived of the services it can render.
On the other hand, this opens opportunities for concerned citizens to rally behind the OVP and show this administration what a truly participative governance is all about.
While the slashing of the budget was intended to cripple the OVP and Vice President Duterte, it may just accomplish the exact opposite. Filipinos know injustice when they see one and they have ways of evening up the odds.
The OVP is perhaps the only bright spot of the present dispensation and slashing its budget is the last thing it deserves.
I therefore join the multitude of Filipinos who deplore this unfortunate move to weaponize the budget against perceived threats and critics of the administration’s questionable actions.
-𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐘. 𝐕𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐙-