THE Office of the Vice President (OVP) will ask Congress for a higher budget for Fiscal Year 2026 even if Vice President Sara Duterte has said that her office would propose a P733 million budget for next year, the same amount it received this year.
Newly appointed OVP spokesman Ruth Castelo, a former undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, said the OVP will ask Congress for a P903 million budget for 2026.
Castelo explained that it was the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that increased the budget proposal from P733 million to P803.6 million, which later reached P903 million after the OVP requested additional budget for personnel services.
“So they added less than P70 million, that’s about P60 something million and then, when they added P60 something million, (after) we requested a higher budget for additional personnel services,” she said in Filipino during a press conference.
“Of course there is a cost for additional employees to better fulfill the functions of the office and other IT equipment that are needed for the OVP,” she added.
Last year, the OVP initially asked Congress for a P2.037 billion budget, of which only P733 million was approved after the Vice President refused to answer the questions of lawmakers who raised issues about her use of confidential funds in the previous years.
The House of Representatives last February impeached the Vice President based on various allegations, including her alleged misuse of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds disbursed by both the Department of Education, which she used to head as secretary, and the OVP through the use of dubious recipients such as the now infamous “Mary Jane Piattos.”
Castelo, who took over the post left by Michael Poa, said the OVP will not request for any confidential funds for 2026. “If they (Congress) want to give, they want to give,” she said.
