NATIONWIDE ROUND-UP

Senate moves to restore P45M in VP’s budget

A SENATE panel on Wednesday moved to restore about P45 million in the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget for next year, intended for the purchase of service vehicles and research activities. The OVP proposed P723.387 million for its 2021 spending plan, which is P15.3 million higher than its 2020 funding. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), however, only approved P679.73 million under the 2021 National Expenditure Program. “We have a lot of vehicles which cannot be used anymore,” Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo told the Senate panel during budget deliberations. “We have about six vehicles that we cannot use anymore for our relief operations, we have been using private vehicles,” she said. Out of the P45 million, P11 million will be used to procure six new service vehicles, while the rest will be spent for surveys for their research and other maintenance and operating expenses. “This is for the survey that is also part of the research and development allocation that was given to us last year. We included that again in the budget but they removed it also,” she said. Ms. Robredo said the research and development budget of the OVP for 2020, worth P69.2 million, was realigned to help fund the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, under Republic Act No. 11469, which involved response measures for the coronavirus crisis. Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon proposed to restore the original budget submitted by the OVP, and was supported by Senators Francis N. Pangilinan, Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay, Juan Edgardo M. Angara and Manuel L. Lapid.