Vice President Sara Duterte’s office emphasized that all her travel overseas is covered by a travel authority and did not include any public funds.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) said on Thursday, Sept. 11,
that P20.68 million has already been spent by the office for Vice
President Sara Duterte’s local and foreign travels.
“The total
travel expenses of the OVP as of July 31 is P20.68 million… P13.21
million of which is under local travels and P7.47 million under the
foreign travels of the OVP,” OVP Budget Division chief Kelvin Gerome
Tenido said at a press conference on Thursday.
“The P7.47 million
was utilized for the security personnel of the OVP and including the
close-in or the civilian personnel,” Tenido pointed out.
OVP assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio defended the foreign travels of Duterte.
“We
would like to emphasize that all the travel overseas of the Vice
President is covered by a travel authority and did not include any
public funds. She did not use any public funds,” Ortonio said.
Duterte
earlier announced that she would travel to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan on
Sept. 20 and 21, respectively, to attend separate Filipino community
gatherings as part of the campaign to free detained former president
Rodrigo Duterte.
The Japan trip will be her 13th foreign travel this year.
Her travel to The Hague, Netherlands was her fourth visit amid the continued detention of her father.
In August, she visited Kuwait, France and the Netherlands.
Last
July, Duterte was in the Netherlands and South Korea; Malaysia and
Australia in June; Qatar and Netherlands in May; Hong Kong and
Netherlands in March and Japan in January.
Proposed budget
The
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has slashed the proposed
budget of the OVP by P39 million after it approved at least P902.895
million compared to its proposal of P942.038 million, Tenido said.
He
said that officials of the OVP are ready to defend their budget as the
House committee on appropriations will hear the OVP’s proposed budget
today.
Tenido said despite a lower budget approved by DBM under
the 2026 National Expenditure Program, it is still 21.3 percent or P170
million higher compared to the current budget of P733 million.
Tenido added that the OVP budget will return to its pre-2023 levels.
Tenido added that the OVP’s proposed budget will not include the Ang Kaibigan children’s book of the Vice President.
AloJapan.com