Vice President Sara Duterte faced the Senate Committee on Finance on Monday, September 4, for the deliberations on the proposed P2.3 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), which includes confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) amounting to P500 million.

During the hearing, Deputy Senate Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros asked Duterte which specific mandates and programs of the OVP would entail the support of the confidential funds, and went on to insist that such funds would best be allocated to government agencies actually tasked with intelligence work such as the national police and army.

After Hontiveros' interpellation, Duterte clarified that the OVP is "not insisting" on being given the half-billion amount. She explained that while the OVP's programs would "be much easier" with the allocation, they "can live without confidential funds."