Vice President Sara Duterte has made official her decision not to pursue her request for P500 million confidential and intelligence funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) next year.
This was announced by Sen. Sonny Angara during the plenary deliberation on the proposed 2024 national budget held today at the Senate office in Pasay City.
Duterte personally showed up at the Senate to personally hand over her letter to Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.
“Your honor, actually, we are in receipt of a statement from the VP and we discussed earlier. According to her, the OVP can only propose a budget to support the safe implementation of its programs to alleviate poverty and promote the general welfare of Filipino families,” Angara announced before his colleagues.
“Nonetheless, they will no longer pursue the confidential and intelligence funds or the confidential funds. And the reason why is because it seems to be divisive, and as the VP, she swore and took an oath to keep the country peaceful and strong,” he added.
After sharing the contents of Duterte’s letter, one-by-one, the senators approached the Vice President and shook her hands for decision to let go of the controversial confidential funds.
The issue of the confidential funds for the OVP and DepEd was raised by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III that led to the disclosure of Duterte’s official declaration that she has to forego her request for the P500 million secret funds “for the sake of the nation’s unity and well-being.”