A video on YouTube is erroneously claiming that the budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was slashed to zero. This is false. The OVP’s budget for 2025 as it stands now in Congress is at P733.19 million, a 60% cut from its proposed P2.03 billion.
Published on Sept. 14, the video bore the following headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG. Pagkatapos i-ZERO BUDGET ang OVP? Sen. Escudero Nagsalita na, GINISA si RISA TAMBA BBM?
(Just in. After the OVP budget was decreased to zero, Senate President Franciz Escudero talked, roasted Sen. Risa Hontiveros and President Ferdinand Marcos?)”
The 20-minute video never substantiated its false headline and instead showed comments of social media users negatively reacting to Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ suggestion to realign some of the line items under the OVP budget to other government agencies.
The spurious video came out days after the House Panel on Appropriations slashed on Sept. 12 the proposed 2025 OVP budget of P2.03 billion to P733.19 million, a reduction of over 60%.
The budget of the OVP is not yet final. Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo said during a Sept. 13 radio interview that the OVP still has a chance to defend their budget during the plenary session through their budget sponsor, even if the House panel has already approved the budget cut after the office snubbed the Sept. 10 House panel hearing on their budget.
The YouTube narrator also stated that Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the initially proposed budget for the OVP was “appropriate.”
This is also false. The Senate president never made such a statement and said during a press interview on Sept. 12 that Congress has the “power of the purse.” Although he added that the House and the OVP should cool their heads and set aside biases during budget deliberations.
The video continued to spread this week as Duterte faced the House panel in its probe into the alleged misuse of OVP funds. The vice president notably refused to take the oath, stating that she was just a resource person and not a witness.
YouTube channel PINAS NEWS HEADLINES (created on July 24, 2017) published the video with the untrue claim, garnering over 219,000 views and 7,000 online interactions.
