The committee on appropriations of the Lower House has acceded to the plea of Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio to decide on the budget of the Office of Vice President (OVP) by slashing P1.204 billion from the proposed P2.037 billion for 2025, leaving her only P733.198 million. Sara said his office would operate even if its budget were reduced to P1.
Sara did not attend the Sept. 10 budget hearing for OVP, pushing lawmakers to slam her for her rudeness, discourtesy and lack of decency. Manila Rep. Benny Abante said Sara’s behavior is an affront to the House of Representatives, whose members have combed through OVP expenditures and questioned her about disallowances of P73.2 million by the COA and the dubious rewards that cover cash, “other products” and medicines. Even as her office is not an intelligence agency, Sara wanted up to P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF.)
During an earlier hearing, Sara demanded that ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro be expelled from the appropriations committee, saying she was convicted by a Davao del Norte court for “child abuse” even as her lawyers slammed the judge for not hearing the testimony of witnesses for the defense and their evidence. Worse, she also called for committee senior vice chairperson Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo to be replaced. Lawmakers were surprised when Sara refused to answer questions, saying it was the first time since1907 that a resource person felt entitled to special treatment in budget hearings.
In pursuit of his “war” against Rep. Castro, Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas for securing the receipts of her P125-million “advance” of CIF from the Office of the President (OP) in December 2022 to finance her “lease” of seven OVP satellite offices (now 10) and two extension offices from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Sara tagged Castro as the “mastermind” of the impeachment move against her. Castro responded by telling her to get her facts straight and stop relying on rumors. The Makabayan Coalition said that as early as November 2023, it said Sara’s impeachment was “premature.” Sara also tagged Castro as plotting her impeachment in tandem with Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and appropriations committee chairman Ako Bikol Rep. Elizaldy Co. Congressional observers said Sara has gone bonkers. Oil and water do not mix.
What is happening to Sara brings to mind a Kenyan proverb that says “a flea can trouble a lion more than a lion can trouble a flea.” This eagle of Davao City is trying her utter best to destroy a tiny sparrow (Edith Piaf was known as such in France since she stands 4’ 9”) whose duty is to ask questions about how money will be spent by government agencies. The OVP is not led by Princess Sara, so she must answer inquiries. She is not entitled to a railroaded budget. Despite Sara’s perorations on a video crafted by her PR operators, she is accountable for all the funds wasted for her 10 satellite offices and two extension offices. She is answerable to the total P221.424 million that the OVP secured from Malacanang since the money came from the OP’s Contingent Fund (CF) during the dying days of 2022.
For one who is obsessed with being on top of a “command center,” which she wants the OVP to be, Sara apparently hasn’t read or applied good management principles (GMP) in handling both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd.) “He who refuses to obey cannot command,” another African proverb intones. Better yet take a cue from the leader of the French revolution of 1848, the lawyer Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin who said: “There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” In the case of Sara, she wants to be served and has no truck with questions from inquisitive lawmakers. Is it beneath her dignity to answer “yes” or “no”? Or is it the case that she just cannot explain the financial shenanigans at the OVP?
Sara should have been careful about what she wished for. Rep. Stella Quimbo said the proposed P2.037 billion OVP budget was slashed by P1.204 billion, killing Sara’s social service programs and realigning the money to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Health (DOH). Of the P1.204 billion, the panel recommended allocating P646,532,796 to DSWD and P646,533,796 to DOH. “This is a committee decision and the committee on appropriations has 139 members and with respect to the budget cut of the OVP ito po ay naging (this is a) unanimous decision among members,” she added.
Sara’s saga isn’t over yet and she is now trying to play the victim card for botching her chance to justify her atrocious spending. Now, she is charging Romualdez and Co for trying to corral P5 billion or more of DepEd funds and claimed that she dumped the idea. This is clearly a deflection that cannot paper over the wasted funds at the OVP and the DepEd as well, with P242 million parked in illegal accounts rather than remitted to the national treasury, P13.2 billion in COA disallowances and billions more that the auditors still have to uncover. Of course, COA may also take a long look into the P2.7 billion in CIF that Sara played with as Davao City mayor. And what about the millions spent for an IBM facial recognition system installed in the city to track “criminals,” political foes and dissenters alike as reported by The Intercept in 2019?
