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Magic! OVP spent P125 million confidential funds in 19 days - lawmaker

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ABS-CBN News

Why can&#x27;t lawmakers question Vice President Sara Duterte about the use of her confidential funds? This was the question raised by a party-list lawmaker after the Office of the Vice President&#x27;s (OVP) P2.385-billion budget request for next year breezed through the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday without a single question asked. Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander &quot;Sandro&quot; Araneta Marcos made the motion to terminate the OVP&#x27;s budget briefing with no questions asked &quot;in line with the longstanding tradition of giving the Office of the Vice President parliamentary courtesy.&quot;Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel earlier said documents from the Office of the Vice President&#x27;s website showed it used P125 million in confidential funds &quot;within 19 days.&quot; The Office of the Vice President is seeking P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds for 2024. &quot;Ang nangyari po nagdecide ang commitee na agad agad after mag present ng OVP ng proposed budget ay tapusin na ang budget briefing kahit ni isang tanong o remarks o manifestation,&quot; Manuel said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview. &quot;Ang ginagamit na dahilan ay &#x27;yung tradisyon daw na dapat galangin ang President at Vice President so dapat hindi na magtanong ang mga mambabatas.&quot;&quot;Sa gobyerno dapat naman co-equal, pantay ang Kamara at Kongreso sa executive branch pero pag ganito, hindi ganun e. Nagtatago pa ang Vice President sa ganung tradisyon para hindi ma question ang pondo nila sa OVP.&quot;Members of the Makabayan bloc earlier <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/25/23/makabayan-mulls-impeach-raps-vs-sara-duterte-over-confidential-funds">questioned </a>why the Office of the Vice President had P125 million in confidential funds in 2022 even if this was not authorized in last year&#x27;s General Appropriations Act.Duterte previously stated that this would be answered in the OVP budget briefing. Records from the budget department, however, showed that the Office of the President approved the P125 million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President on November 28, 2022.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/30/23/palace-okd-duterte-offices-p125-m-confidential-funds-in-2022-records">Palace approved Duterte office&#x27;s P125-M confidential funds in 2022: DBM records</a></li></ul>&quot;Wala pong inaprubahan sa 2022 budget para sa Office of the Vice President. Sa huling mga araw ng December 2022 bigla pong nagkaroon ng P125 million confidential funds ang OVP kahit wala pong batas na nag-enable diyan. Ibig sabihin pwede pala na mag magic, mag produce lang na labas sa national budget ng ganoong pondo para sa kahit sinong opisyal lalo na kung malakas o malapit sa Malacanang,&quot; Manuel said.

Why can't lawmakers question Vice President Sara Duterte about the use of her confidential funds? 