Office of the Vice President spokesperson Ruth Castelo answers questions during a press conference, July 9, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA — The Office of the Vice President (OVP) logged a 34-percent budget utilization rate in the first half of 2025, its spokesperson said on Wednesday, acknowledging that the agency needed to “speed up” its spending in the second half of the year.

The agency wants “to be careful so there will be no issues thrown against us,” OVP spokesperson Ruth Castelo told reporters.

“We intend to use up the entire budget allotted to us. We still have time and we are going to speed up the action on our funds,” she said.

“We need to speed up utilizing the fund but we do not want to carelessly utilize the fund,” she said.

“We are just being careful,” she added.

The OVP was stripped of P1.3 billion in this year’s budget after lawmakers questioned its use of funds in previous years. 

‘Jay Kamote’, ‘Miggy Mango’ found on OVP confidential fund receipts, says lawmaker
VP Sara camp taps intel experts to explain confidential funds issue if trial proceeds

While the OVP had to halt some projects — including its burial and medical assistance programs — due to its reduced funding this year, the agency will retain its free bus ride program and livelihood assistance projects, the spokesperson said.

The OVP’s “Libreng Sakay” program is being offered in select routes in Metro Manila, Cavite, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao and Tacloban, Castelo said.

“We are currently studying increasing the hours from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m… We are still studying, looking into the best possibility if we can allow that,” she said.

“This is also going to be a very dependable mode of transport… especially with the looming or forthcoming gasoline prices,” she said.

The service was launched in Tacloban “because we have been consistently asked” for such aid there, Castelo said when asked why the OVP extended its “Libreng Sakay” operations to the bailiwick of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Duterte’s political foe.

The OVP’s bus in Tacloban serves as a shuttle service that runs back and forth from the city center to the relocation site for Yolanda victims, she said.

85.5% UTILIZATION IN 2024

Castelo attributed the OVP’s 85.5 percent budget utilization rate in 2024 to difficulties in the vetting of some beneficiaries.

“There were a lot of challenges in implementing the programs of the OVP,” she said, noting that the agency has a separate “manual of operation” for each project.

“It takes a lot of time in assessing and qualifying the would-be beneficiaries of the program,” she said, referring to the OVP’s livelihood assistance program.

Last week, Castelo said that the Commission on Audit gave the OVP 60 days “to submit the corrections or whatever remedial actions” that were flagged in its financial submissions to the state auditing firm.

“I’m not sure if she will attend the budget hearing but we have competent staff to defend why we need this kind of money,” Castelo said. 

DBM hikes OVP’s proposed 2026 budget to P903M: spox