Bicam restores OVP budget to P889 million, undoing House cut over Sara's snub

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December 18, 2025 | 3:12pm

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee restored the Office of the Vice President’s proposed P889 million budget for 2026, reversing a House-approved cut imposed after Vice President Sara Duterte declined to personally defend her office’s spending during plenary deliberations.

The amount approved by the bicam panel late Tuesday, December 17, matches the figure in the National Expenditure Program for 2026 and scraps the P733 million version passed earlier by the House of Representatives. 

The House cut of about P156 million was explicitly linked to Duterte’s repeated refusal to face lawmakers during budget deliberations, which supporters—including opposition figure Rep. Leila de Lima (Mamamayang Liberal party-list) said was meant to enforce accountability rather than cripple the office.

Duterte initially skipped the House's first two committee-level hearings of the OVP's budget. She eventually appeared in September, but she was not questioned about her office's budget as lawmakers chose to extend the controversial "parliamentary courtesy" reserved for the country's top officials. 

De Lima, who moved for the reduction during plenary debates in October, expressed frustration at the time over Duterte’s absence, which she said was “an insult” to Congress and a rejection of her duty to explain how her office uses public funds. The lawmaker had pointed out that Duterte chose to attend the Senate's plenary deliberations of her office's budget even as she was not required to do so.

The House majority adopted de Lima’s amendment, keeping the OVP budget at P733 million, roughly its 2025 level. 

As it turns out, however, this decision would not survive the bicameral process. 

By restoring the P889 million allocation late Tuesday, the bicam panel set aside the House-imposed penalty and adopted the executive’s original 2026 budget proposal for the OVP.

The bicameral conference committee reconciles differing versions of the proposed national budget passed separately by the House and the Senate. Its report, once ratified by both chambers, becomes the basis of the final General Appropriations Act.

A statement from the OVP was not immediately available. This article will be updated with their response.