OVP budget quickly gets Senate nod

The Senate on Thursday swiftly approved the proposed P889 million budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for fiscal year 2026.

During the plenary session, Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito moved to terminate the deliberations on the proposed budget of the OVP in less than five minutes. 

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III approved the motion after no senator objected.

Vice President Sara Duterte personally went to the Senate to represent her office. 

The Senate committee on finance earlier proposed to increase the proposed 2026 budget of the OVP, from P733.198 million under the House-approved General Appropriations Bill (GAB) to P889.236 million. 

In his manifestation, Senator Robin Padilla expressed gratitude to Senate committee on finance chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and to their other colleagues for increasing the budget of the OVP. 

“Sa akin pong karanasan, sa tuwing may dadating na kalamidad, kalungkutan, kamatayan, naandyan po lagi ang ating Pangalawang Pangulo upang makiramay, tumulong. Kahit saan pong lupalop sa Pilipinas, makikita po natin ang opisina ng ating Pangalawang Pangulo at siya mismo ay pumupunta sa mga lugar na hindi pa po naabot ng kahit na sinong naging public official,” Padilla said. 

(In my experience, whenever there is a calamity, sadness, or death, our Vice President is always there to sympathize and help. Wherever we go in the Philippines, we can see the Office of our Vice President and she herself goes to places that no public official has ever gone to.) 

Duterte also thanked the Senate for approving her office’s proposed budget for next year. 

“We’d like to thank the Senate of the Philippines for approving the OVP year 2026 budget,” the Vice President said. 

She refused to answer questions from the media.

Last year, the House decided to reduce the budget of the OVP from the originally proposed P2 billion to P733 million amid Duterte’s refusal to answer lawmakers’ questions on OVP budget use, including confidential funds.

The Senate retained the House-introduced budget cut despite calls from Duterte's allies to restore some of OVP's proposed funding for social services.

During the plenary deliberations, the Senate also approved the OVP budget in less than 10 minutes after no senators raised questions on the P733-million allocation proposed by the Senate finance committee.—AOL, GMA Integrated News