The plenary debates on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) proposed 2026 budget has been reset again as no undersecretary-level official showed up at the House of Representatives – with the chamber giving the office one last chance to appear on Thursday.
During the plenary session on Wednesday, Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan asked whether Vice President Sara Duterte is present to defend the agency’s proposed allocation for 2026.
Deputy Speaker Yevgeny Emano asked Deputy Majority Leader and Mindoro 1st District Rep. Arnan Panaligan to respond to Libanan’s question.
‘Mr. Speaker, according to our agenda for today, the next agency in the agenda is the Office of the Vice President. May we know if the Vice President is present, Mr. Speaker?’ Libanan asked. ‘Mr. Speaker, we have been informed that the Vice President is not present, but sent the following officials of the Office of the Vice President, namely Assistant Secretary Lemuel, the OIC chief-of-staff; Atty. Rosalynne Sanchez, director for admin and financial services; and Mr. Norman Baloro, director for operations,’ Panaligan replied.
After this response from the Deputy Majority Leader, Libanan asked if the requirement of the House is to have either the head of agency or the second-in-command – an undersecretary-level official – assist the budget sponsor in defending the proposed budget.
In response, Panaligan said that plenary debates on the OVP budget was actually scheduled for Tuesday, but it was rescheduled to Wednesday because of the same issue.
Panaligan noted that OVP will have one final chance to appear on Thursday – the last day of debates before the House moves to make amendments on the floor.
‘Mr. Speaker, is it not the requirement of this House, is that for the heads of agencies (to) be personally present as what happened during our previous deliberations, and in this case, we need the presence of the Vice President?’ Libanan asked again.
‘That is correct Mr. Speaker, the rules of the House requires the presence of heads of agencies in the consideration of their budget [.] Mr. Speaker 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 in the agenda, but only the same officials mentioned earlier were present,’ Panaligan said.
This is not the first time that the OVP sent an official that is not of an undersecretary level. Last September 12, at the initial budget hearing before the House committee on appropriations, the panel was forced to reschedule the discussions as Ortonio was the highest-ranked official that Duterte sent.
Budget sponsor and Palawan 2nd District Rep. Jose Alvarez said that Vice President Duterte will eventually show up on September 16 – a promise that she fulfilled. During the committee hearing, both the Minority and the Majority accorded parliamentary courtesy to Duterte, sparing her from questions by the panel’s members.
Duterte however waived the parliamentary courtesy given, answering some questions from the Minority solons.