NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 10 September) – Hindi daw sya bratinella (she’s not a brat) but was acting no less than that – a spoiled brat in her engagement with the House Appropriations Committee on August 28, 2024.
VP Sara Duterte arrogantly declared she would not defend the budget of the Office of the Vice President. She would not answer any question.
What impunity. Refusing a budget hearing is disrespectful to the constitutional process.
Naturally, her budget proposal for 2025 was sidelined. Just the same, a hearing was rescheduled.
When a head of office presents a budget for his agency, he is expected to answer questions on how the agency’s past budget was spent. It is to determine the expenditure’s conformity with the purpose of the allocation.
A budget proponent presents himself to the hearing committee to defend his proposal and answer questions from the members. He is there to listen and has no business asking the hearing committee questions. VP Sara Duterte, as budget proponent, whimsically changed the rules and procedure. She was not recognized, yet she asked questions, made snide remarks, and even demanded the replacement of the presiding officer of the House Appropriation Committee.
There is no doubt Duterte refused a hearing on her budget to avoid, obviously, queries on her past budget performance, particularly on the notice of disallowance (ND) of the Commission on Audit (COA) dated August 8, 2024. The COA disallowed the amount of P73, 287,000.00 in the P125-million confidential funds disbursed by the OVP in 2022, for “non-submission of documents evidencing the success of information gathering/and or surveillance” broken down as follows: reward payment, P10, 000,000.00; payment of reward (various goods), P34, 857,000.00; and payment of reward (medicines), P24, 930,000.00.
When House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas (Gabriela) brought up the issue of the OVP spending P125 million worth of confidential funds back in 2022, Duterte pointed out the issue was being discussed by the Supreme Court, which led to Brosas asking further about it given that they are public funds.
The vice president responded, “She may not like my answer. She may not like how I answer. She may not like the content of my answer, but I am answering.” (This is the origin of the Shimenet memes that went viral online. Her pronunciation of she may not sounded shimenet.)
The OVP is not in information or intelligence gathering. Why, in the first place, was it given a confidential fund? Sara wanted it and got it. That’s how immense her influence was then.
Confidential funds are allocations within the budget of government agencies that are specifically set aside for sensitive, confidential, or secret operations. These funds serve specific purposes related to national security, intelligence gathering, law enforcement, and other covert or confidential operations.
In her term, VP Leni Robredo had no confidential funds. Sara Duterte, on the other hand, had P125 million in 2022 and spent it all in just 11 days at the equivalent of P11.3 million/day.
The state auditor shall issue an ND (notice of disallowance) for transactions that are irregular/unnecessary/excessive and extravagant as defined in COA circular No. 85-55A as well as other COA issuances, and those which are illegal and “unconscionable,” according to the COA 2009 Revised Rules of Procedure.
A ND means that state auditors had disapproved of the transaction in question. If such a transaction or account is not settled, the concerned agency must return the funds to the government.
It is doubtful that VP Sara Duterte, whose sense of entitlement and impunity is overblown, would return what is due to the government.
In breaking the alliance with PBBM and making enemies in Congress, Sara Duterte drains effusively her political resources. Once a feared and respected public official she now has reduced herself to a scarecrow. Her huge ego and arrogance, her questionable public spending, and her public support and alliance with the captured fugitive (alleged) sex trafficker Apollo Quiboloy dim her ambition to follow the footsteps of her father to the apex of power.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)