VICE President Sara Duterte has claimed that Speaker Martin Romualdez, House Appropriations Panel chairman and Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co, and the Makabayan Bloc conspired to remove her confidential funds (CF) in the last budget hearing. In the last part of her interview that was provided by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to members of the media, Duterte claimed that in September 2023, the Makabayan bloc planned to meet with Romualdez to discuss the removal of her confidential funds. She said that after the Romualdez-Makabayan meeting, a lawmaker-friend approached her, claiming that he was approached by Representative Co to ask if the VP would get mad if her proposed confidential funds were removed. "My lawmaker-friend replied to Co, 'Inday Sara does not care about money; she will work whatever the budget because she knows government funds are limited. So, she will just work.' Co repeated the question, 'Would Sara get angry?' My friend said, 'Nope,'" VP Sara said. She said that while they defended the use of the confidential funds during the budget briefing of the OVP at the House plenary, Co said two hours later that there was a "unanimous decision" by the House leaders led by Romualdez to remove the confidential funds. "And to not make it look like they were attacking me, they also removed the confidential funds of other departments. So you'll see that the Makabayan Bloc whispered to Martin Romualdez, and because the speaker does not want to be attacked, and because he wants to be supported by the Makabayan bloc and the NPA (New People's Army), he listened, and he removed the budget," Duterte said. She said that the removal of the confidential funds, as well as the release of an audit memorandum of the Commission on Audit (CoA), was a confirmation of the possible "attack" on the OVP through the budget. Because of this, Sara said, both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) did not use its allocated confidential funds, thinking she would be attacked using these funds. She claimed that the plan was proven during the August 27 budget hearing, where most of the questions were based on the confidential funds. "That is my long explanation: Why should we be subjected to a question and answer? So you can attack me? And we all know Co and Romualdez are the ones controlling the nation's budget," Duterte said. She also believes there was a "great plan" to discredit her during the hearing, noting the prepared audiovisual presentations and a "script" that they were reading during their interpellations. "They have a plan to use that issue to destroy me, and they did not stop there. If you look, they are now focusing on the DepEd budget to destroy my name. Even if I am not part of the observations of the CoA, they said that it is 'Inday Sara's fault,'" VP Sara said. On the issue of whether Congress would defund the OVP, Duterte said that her office is ready to work even without a budget. "Our office is small, and our operations are small, so we can work without a budget. I know it's part of the attacks, so we will continue to work for the nation," she added. Co denied Sara's allegation that the briefing on the OVPs was "scripted." "She does not want to answer her confidential funds because she is not able to explain it, as she stole the money. She should return the money," Co said in Filipino. Meanwhile, Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said that the real issue is Duterte's refusal to take accountability for the confidential funds. "The legislative branch is the one controlling the utilization, but why is it that the school building project of the DepEd had three percent utilization? That someone who is controlling the utilization is too weak," Acidre said. 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez also dismissed the Vice President's claim, stressing that the role of Congress is to approve the budget, while the executive is the one implementing the budget. "To say two people from another branch control the budget's execution is farfetched. It's almost offensive because we take pride in our work here in the House," Gutierrez said. Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel also dismissed Duterte's claims of Makabayan conniving with the House leadership. "What it supports are Duterte-era counter-insurgency legacies: NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) and billions of CIF (confidential and intelligence funds) for the Office of the President acting as NTF-ELCAC secretariat," Manuel said.
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