VP Duterte says she’s not pursuing P500-M confidential fund request

Vice President Sara Duterte is no longer asking Congress to grant its proposed P500-million confidential funds for 2024 because the issue has been “divisive.”

Vice President Sara Duterte (Inday Sara Duterte/Facebook)

In a statement sent to the media on Thursday, Nov. 9, the official noted the Office of the Vice President (OVP) can only propose a budget that would support the “safe implementation” of their programs and activities that aim “to alleviate poverty and promote the general welfare of every Filipino family.”

“Nonetheless, we will no longer pursue the Confidential Funds,” Duterte said.

“Why? Because this issue is divisive, and as the Vice President, I swore an oath to keep the country peaceful and strong.”

The statement was also quoted by Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate committee on finance and sponsor of the 2024 national budget bill.

He read this statement after Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III asked if the Vice President, who attended the Senate plenary deliberations, is appealing for the reinstatement of the P500-million confidential funds that the House of Representatives has initially scrapped and realigned.

The Senate has not taken up Duterte’s proposed 2024 spending plan for the Department of Education (DepEd), which includes P150 million in confidential funds.

The Vice President is also the country’s Education chief in a concurrent capacity.

The issue on her confidential funds—both the P125-million transferred to the OVP in December 2022 and the proposed P650 million for the OVP and DepEd for 2024— exposed cracks in the UniTeam coalition after the House of Representatives, under the leadership of House Speaker Martin Romualdez, reallocated the funds and ,in the process, drew flak from former president Rodrigo Duterte.