VP Sara Duterte visits earthquake-hit Cebu

Vice President Sara Duterte is currently in Cebu province to visit the areas affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) said on Wednesday. 

“Vice President Sara Z. Duterte is currently in Cebu Province to extend her sympathies to those affected by the earthquake,” the statement read. 

“She will remain in Cebu until tomorrow, October 2, and is scheduled to visit the areas affected by the Magnitude 6.9 earthquake.” 

The statement came after Duterte skipped the plenary debates on the OVP’s proposed budget of more than P900 million for 2026. Her absence forced the House of Representatives to postpone the deliberations on Thursday. 

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan asked whether the vice president was present in the plenary. But House Deputy Majority Leader Arnan Panaligan responded that Duterte sent some officials from the OVP on her behalf. 

Libanan argued that heads of government agencies must be present. 

“Mr. Speaker, is it not a requirement of this House that the heads of the agencies be personally present, as what happened during our previous deliberations? In this case, we need the presence of the vice president,” the 4Ps Party-list representative noted. 

Panaligan replied: “For the record, today is the second time that the proposed budget of the OVP was put in our agenda. Yesterday, the proposed budget of the OVP was even number one on the agenda, but only the same officials mentioned earlier were present.” 

“So we set that office again for today. But again, only the said officials were sent for today’s deliberations. So the absence of the head of office yesterday was the reason why we reset the agenda for today,” the Oriental Mindoro lawmaker added.

Further, Panaligan said they have no choice but to move the plenary debates on Thursday, which is also the last day of deliberations. 

“Given the same situation today, we are constrained to put this office again on the agenda tomorrow, October 2, 2025. This is the last chance, the last day that we will put the Office of the Vice President on the agenda to defend the budget of her office,” he said. 

Duterte was present earlier in the Senate, wherein a finance subcommittee approved OVP’s budget proposal for 2026. —LDF, GMA Integrated News