Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Vice President Inday Sara Duterte arrives at the Romualdez Hall of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, to attend the hearing on the proposed 2026 budget of the Office of the Vice President. OVP/Facebook

Article (news)

Vivienne Gulla

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1758004398618cropped-547653450_798276286487206_5683685907490682887_n.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Vice President Inday Sara Duterte arrives at the Romualdez Hall of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, to attend the hearing on the proposed 2026 budget of the Office of the Vice President. OVP/Facebook</span></span></span></div><p>MANILA<strong> (UPDATE) </strong>— Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday joined the budget briefing of her office at the House of Representatives.</p><p>The Office of the Vice President proposed a P902.8-million budget for 2026.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/7/ovp-prepared-to-defend-budget-for-2026-cites-flagship-projects-and-audit-record-2225">OVP prepared to defend ₱902.8-M budget for 2026, cites flagship projects and audit record</a></div><p>Duterte waived the privilege of parliamentary courtesy and entertained questions from congressmen.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Minority lawmakers asked Duterte about her office&#x27;s confidential fund use, but she refused to answer and said the issue was part of the impeachment complaint against her. </p><p>“This is the subject of an impeachment trial, and I would not like to discuss the defense for the impeachment trial,” Duterte told congressmen.</p><p>“Wala pong impeachment trial sa kasalukuyan. In fact it is archived in the Senate,” House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio replied.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oOcO4E8Gofs?&amp;t=16s&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>The Supreme Court has yet to rule on a motion for reconsideration seeking to overturn its <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/7/25/supreme-court-duterte-impeachment-articles-unconstitutional-1601">ruling that the impeachment complaint was unconstitutional.</a></p><p>“There is a pending motion for reconsideration in the Supreme Court, I cannot discuss defense strategy,” Duterte asserted.</p><p>House Assistant Minority Leader and Kabataan Rep. Renee Co also questioned the alleged involvement of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) in the disbursement of the OVP’s confidential funds. But Duterte only reiterated her response to Tinio.</p><p>“The confidential funds is the subject of the articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives and I would not like to discuss the defense strategy, particularly because the prosecutors will come from the House of Representatives,” Duterte replied.</p><p>Tinio also sought an update on the status of the notice of disallowance issued by the Commission on Audit against P73 million confidential expenses of the OVP in 2022. But Duterte suggested that the question be directed to COA instead.</p><p>Co also asked about the P3.8 million worth of equipment supposedly unaccounted for in OVP’s submissions to the Commission on Audit in 2024.</p><p>Duterte asserted that the OVP received unmodified opinion from COA from 2022, 2023 and 2024.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>FOREIGN TRAVEL EXPENSES</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The Office of the Vice President spent a total of P7.473 million for security and OVP personnel during Duterte’s nine foreign trips.</p><p>“Are these trips personal in nature that required ‘yung presence ng personnel and staff?” Co asked.</p><p>“It depends, if I have activities for the Office of the Vice President abroad. The three OVP personnel join the trips. But if the trip is purely personal and I do not have events for the Office of the Vice President, they do not join the trips,” Duterte replied.</p><p>“But in the case of security personnel, this is something that is beyond the Office of the Vice President. It is decided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” she added.</p><p>Duterte also enumerated her foreign travels in the second half of 2024, which included Germany and Denmark, and this year, she visited Japan, Hongkong, the Netherlands, Qatar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Australia, South Korea, Kuwait, and Belgium.</p><p>“The travel authority is approved by the Office of the President,” Duterte said.</p><p>“No public funds were used for all my travels. I did not charge representation. I did not charge tickets. I did not charge per diem for all my travels in the Office of the Vice President,” she clarified.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;BINABANATAN?&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>A heated exchange ensued when Tinio asked about expenses for staff during these trips.</p><p>“I thought we are going to accord institutional courtesy to the Office of the Vice President. Bakit natin binabanatan? Bakit natin tatanungin?” SAGIP Rep. Paolo Henry Marcoleta asked.</p><p>“It’s already settled that we’re just giving two questions from the minority,” OVP’s budget sponsor at the lower chamber Rep. Jose Alvarez replied.</p><p>“Wala pong binabanatan dito. I take exception to the use of the term binabanatan. Nagtatanong lang po tayo rito at lehitimo naman ang mga tanong,” Tinio said.</p><p>The session was briefly suspended. When it resumed, Rep. Edgar Erice moved to strike out the word “binabanatan” from the records, which was seconded and carried.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>NO OVP PERSONNEL</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Duterte did not bring with her to the lower chamber other officials from the OVP, saying many of them are still “apprehensive” after attending the previous hearings of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability last Congress.</p><p>The said House panel previously investigated the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the offices led by Duterte, which she previously denied.</p><p>“Nag-usap kami ng mga kasamahan ko sa Office of the Vice President and syempre lahat ay apprehensive pa sa nangyari noon sa mga personnel, nangyari noong committee hearings sa House of Representatives sa mga personnel ng Office of the Vice President na ang daming kinabahan, ang daming nagka-anxiety, ang daming nagkasakit. So sinabi ko sa kanila na it is best kung ako na lang ‘yung haharap sa budget hearing ng Office of the Vice President,” Duterte said.</p><p>The Vice President acknowledged that the budget briefing before the House panel this year was not as intense as last year.</p><p>“Hindi lang ‘yun naging intense kasi hindi ako bumanat. Last time kasi bumabanat ako kaya naging intense siya. So kanina, naisip ko, &#x27;babanatan ko ba ito sila o hindi?&#x27; Naaawa ako kay Congressman Pepito Alvarez kasi he&#x27;s 81 years old and I do not think that he can handle the stress of an intense and heated budget hearing,” she explained.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RA2WrgwvLO0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RzxP_EXBEX8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WHZAlroopq8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday joined the budget briefing of her office at the House of Representatives.</p>

Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday joined the budget briefing of her office at the House of Representatives.

Sara Duterte shows up at House budget briefing, clashes with minority solons

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Sara Duterte shows up at House budget briefing, clashes with minority solons

Vivienne Gulla,

ABS-CBN News

Published September 16, 2025 09:33 AM PHT

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Updated September 16, 2025 02:46 PM PHT

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Sara Duterte

OVP

budget

2026 budget

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