The recent budget hearings for the office of the Philippine vice-president (OVP) has not only turned into a political and entertainment spectacle, but has also exposed the rottenness of the ruling class’ mad scramble to get their hands on the people’s money, and hold on to power.
The hearing conducted at the Philippine Lower House last 27 August to scrutinize the proposed budget of more than 2B Php (around 35M USD) for the office of the vice president turned ugly as GRP vice president Sara Duterte, according to a political observer was “uncooperative, disrespectful and insulting”.
Philippine lawmakers have been asking Duterte about how she spent 73 million pesos out of 125 million of her supposed secret (confidential) funds in 2022, which she used in only 11 days in December 2022, and on items not related to the functions of the office of the vice president. The so-called billions of confidential funds are inserted in the budgets of the GRP president and vice-president, and are discretionary in nature, and are supposed to be beyond the scrutiny of lawmakers and the people. These funds may likely be used for corruption, personal political campaigning, etc.
During the hearing, Duterte, daughter of the deranged former GRP president Rodrigo Duterte (himself facing accusations of mass killings in connection with his “war on drugs”), insulted the presiding officer of the hearing who belong to the progressive Makabayan bloc, and refused to answer further questions from the lawmakers.
Sara Duterte used to be in a political coalition with the Marcoses with the wish to succeed Bongbong Marcos when his term ends in June 2028. When it became clear to the Dutertes that the Marcoses have unabashed plans to preserve their billions of dollars of stolen wealth, avoid prosecution for their own war crimes and hold on to power after 2028, the similarly criminal Dutertes broke off with the coalition. The consistent red-tagger vice president also resigned as vice chairperson of the much-hated, corrupt and US-sponsored counter revolutionary agency, National Task Force to End Local [sic] Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).
House lawmakers have called for a reduction and further scrutiny of the proposed budget for the OVP, and Makabayan bloc House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro has brought up the idea of impeaching Sara Duterte. Castro said that Duterte was banking on the supposed veil of secrecy around confidential funds to hide her unlawful use of people’s money.
“The misappropriation of confidential funds at a time when we are lacking funds for public services, and her refusal to offer an explanation, are clear bases for impeachment,” member of the Makabayan bloc House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said.
