ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio has accused Vice President Sara Duterte and her office of using the recent Cebu earthquake as an excuse to justify her absence during the House of Representatives deliberations on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget, alleging that Duterte had no real intention of attending the debates.
In an ambush interview, Tinio acknowledged that Duterte was indeed in Cebu for relief operations following the magnitude 6.9 earthquake on September 30, but claimed her absence was deliberate.
He said the vice president had imposed preconditions for her appearance, demands that the House could not fulfill.
“Her office and her supporters are spreading the narrative that she missed the hearing because she went to Cebu to help earthquake victims. That’s true, she’s in Cebu—but she really had no intention of showing up because she laid down several conditions,” Tinio said in Filipino.
Among Duterte’s supposed demands was the lifting of Immigration lookout bulletin orders against her staff implicated in the issue of unexplained confidential funds.
She also wanted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to personally attend the House to defend the Office of the President’s budget before she would appear to defend the OVP’s.
Because Duterte neither appeared nor sent an undersecretary-level representative, the House plenary proceeded without tackling the OVP budget and moved forward with the approval of House Bill No. 4058, the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
During the session, Duterte’s budget sponsor, Palawan 2nd District Rep. Jose Alvarez, read three letters from the vice president: one assigning staffers like Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio to represent her; another notifying that Ortonio was acting OIC due to Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez’s leave of absence; and a third outlining her conditions for attending the hearing.
Tinio described Duterte’s stance as unprecedented, saying it was highly unusual for a government official to set conditions before appearing in Congress to defend their budget.
“Who does that—imposing conditions before explaining to the people how they intend to use their budget?” he asked.
Tinio announced he would push to slash the OVP’s budget from P902 million to P198 million, limiting it to the agency’s personal services (PS) or salary allocation.
Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima also expressed frustration over Duterte’s absence, saying she initially considered proposing to reduce the OVP’s budget to zero but decided against it to protect rank-and-file employees.
She said lawmakers may instead identify specific items under the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) that can be retained, but the OVP’s allocation will still be significantly lower than in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (P733 million) or the 2026 National Expenditure Program (₱902 million).