The Senate will likely reject the decision of the House of Representatives to leave the Office of the Vice President with just PHP733-million out of the over P2 billion proposed allocation for its 2025 operations.

In a news forum on Thursday (September 27) Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri told reporters that some of his Senate colleagues are intent at restoring some of the amount that congressmen slashed from the budget of the office of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“We have several colleagues who already said they want to increase the OVP allocation but it is still premature to say what should happen and what will happen,” Zubiri stated when asked to comment on the decision of the Lower House.

Voting 285-3 on Wednesday, the Lower House approved on third and final reading House Bill 10800 or the General Appropriations Act granting government a P6.352-trillion budget for 2025.

The OVP was given PHP733 million for its operations, which is PHP1.29 billion lower than the original budget proposal.

The House Committee on Appropriations decided to reduce the OVP allocation after Duterte snubbed the second hearing for her office and did not show up during the plenary deliberations.

Duterte accused leaders of the Lower House subjecting her to public denigration. She said the attempt to discredit her is linked to the plan of Speaker Martin Romualdez to face her in the 2028 presidential elections.

Zubiri noted that unlike in the Lower House, the vice president showed up in their hearings and responded to the questions thrown her by senators.

“She was very engaging with the senators so walang problema” he stated.

“The appetite though among senators is to increase the budget, increase ng konti ang budget ng OVP,” the veteran lawmaker disclosed.

However, he stressed that any move to increase the OVP budget must have the imprimatur of the Senate Committee on Finance under Sen. Grace Poe.