The House of Representatives appropriations committee on Tuesday approved in less than two minutes the proposed 2018 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

Vice President Leni Robredo personally attended the House appropriations committee budget hearing, where the chairperson Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said the committee would dispense with the presentation of the budget as courtesy to Robredo.

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Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman also moved to dispense with the OVP’s budget deliberation.

“We move to dispense (with presentation of budget). This is a due courtesy to the Office of the Vice President,” Lagman said.

The appropriations panel usually approves the budget of government agencies headed by former members of the lower House.

READ: House panel approves OVP budget for 2017 in 3 minutes

The approval of the OVP’s proposed 2018 budget paves the way for the discussions of the budget in the plenary.

In an ambush interview after the hearing, Robredo said the OVP’s budget may have increased by three percent, but it incurred a huge cut on its maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).

“Three per cent tumaas kasi kami sa personal services yung dating positions na hindi filled up na fill up na. Pero grabe yung binaba ng MOOE namin,” Robredo told reporters.

The OVP has a proposed 2018 budget of P443.946 million, up by 3.58 percent from its approved 2017 budget of P428.618 million. This is net of the Retirement and Life Insurance Premiums.

The MOOE of the OVP went down by 2.32 percent, from its approved 2017 budget of P357.324 million to a proposed 2018 budget of P349.029 million.

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The personnel services jumped by 36.71 percent from the approved 2017 allotment of P61.135 million to a proposed 2018 budget of P83.577 million.

The capital outlay also increased by 11.63 percent from an approved allotment of P10.159 million in 2017 to a proposed P11.34 million in 2018.

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