VICE President Sara Duterte yesterday told the House Committee on Appropriations that her office has spent P7.47 million for the travel expenses of her security and staff who have been accompanying her on her foreign trips since July last year.
Duterte, who attended yesterday’s briefing on the proposed P902.8 million budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2026, reiterated that she spends for her trips and does not charge the government a single centavo for her plane tickets and accommodations.
“No public funds were used for all my travels. I did not charge representation, I did not charge tickets, I did not charge per dime for all my travels in the Office of the Vice President,” she said as she defended the OVP’s budget proposal.
“So if you can see, in the breakdown of the budget of travel for the Office of the Vice President, you can see that there was a zero amount for the Vice President,” she added.
Duterte said she brings three members of her staff on her trips: one ceremonial and diplomatic affairs employee, one media relations and public affairs officer, and one assistant to the Vice President.
She said, though, that she does not bring all three staff members on all of her trips because there were times when they could not accompany her.
She said the Armed Forces has recommended that she bring with her three to four security details during her trips, but the OVP only approves two.
“(My) security (detail) is always recommended by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but (in) some trips (I) do not have OVP personnel because there are only three trusted OVP personnel who can do the work that I demand from them. And sometimes, they are not available,” she said.
The Vice President has been criticized for her recent frequent travels abroad.
She has been in and out of the Netherlands ever since her father was detained in The Hague last March.
She has so far had 13 foreign trips since July last year: Germany in July 2024; Denmark, December 2024; Japan in January and February 2025;
Hong Kong and the Netherlands in March 2025; Qatar and the Netherlands in May 2025; Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Australia in June 2025; the Netherlands and South Korea in July 2025; and Kuwait, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium in August to September 2025.
The OVP last week said it has so far only spent a total of P20.68 million as of July this year for local and foreign trips because the Vice President is paying for her own personal trips.
BUDGET APPROVED
The House Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved the OVP’s proposed budget for next year even after the Vice President refused to answer questions related to her use of confidential funds, which became the subject of the Articles of Impeachment filed against her last February.
The House panel chaired by Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing terminated the budget hearing after Duterte waived parliamentary privilege and answered some of the questions raised by two members of the minority bloc, party-list Reps. Antonio Tinio (ACT) and Renee Co (Kabataan).
The two militant lawmakers quizzed the Vice President about her office’s use of its annual budget, including her confidential funds and foreign travel expenses.
Duterte, however, declined to answer questions about the use of her confidential funds, saying she does not want to reveal her defense team’s strategy since the matter remains the subject of the Articles of Impeachment against her.
“This is a subject of impeachment proceedings. I cannot discuss defense and strategy because the prosecutors will come from the House of Representatives,” she told the panel.
The Senate had earlier archived the Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President after the Supreme Court decided last July 25 that the complaint was unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives, however, has appealed the High Court’s ruling and it is yet to decide on the motion for reconsideration.
During the hearing, Tinio asked the Vice President to explain why her office’s submissions to the Commission on Audit (COA) showed fictitious names in acknowledgment receipts, such as “Mary Jane” as recipients of confidential funds.
“The OVP submitted 2,670 accomplishment reports for the liquidation of P500 million worth of confidential funds under the (OVP) and according to the investigation, 1,322 out of 1,992 names in the OVP ARs submitted to the PSA have no birth records, so this includes the names Mary Grace Piattos, Fernando Tempura, and there’s even a Chel Diokno,” Tinio said.
The Vice President, however, said she cannot discuss defense strategy and how intelligence operations are done “without compromising national security.”
Prior to this, Tinio raised the notice of disallowance issued by the COA on the OVP’s P73 million confidential fund transactions and asked her to shed light on the use of P125 million in December 2022.
“Madam Chair, this is the subject of an impeachment trial and I would not like to discuss the defense for the impeachment trial,” Duterte said.
