By Raymund Antonio Vice President Leni Robredo is elated over the restoration of P100 million to her office’s budget for 2019. Vice President Leni Robredo
(OVP / MANILA BULLETIN) This, after the Senate swiftly approved the P547.6-million appropriation for the Office of the Vice President next year. The amount was the original proposed budget for Robredo’s office. Robredo attended the plenary deliberation on Monday at the Senate, where OVP’s budget was approved in less than a minute. “Malaking tulong iyon for us, dahil nakakatulong talaga siya pandagdag sa pagtulong sa mga communities,” she told reporters. (That’s a big help to us, because it’s really a supplement to the assistance that we are providing to communities.) An advocate of the poor, the Vice President said her office would continue to focus on her flagship Angat Buhay program to alleviate poverty. Robredo presented a budget of P549 million for the OVP, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) trimmed it down to P447.68 million, which the House of Representatives approved in August. During the budget hearing, she appealed to lawmakers to restore her office’s 2019 budget to its current level. According to Robredo, the amount slashed from the OVP budget would have been used to fund her anti-poverty program to assist poor communities in need. Her request was later approved at the Senate. Launched in October 2016, Angat Buhay focuses on six key advocacies areas—nutrition and food security, universal health care, education, housing, rural development, and women empowerment. The OVP has partnered with more than 250 private organizations for its poverty alleviation program that benefited 338,426 individuals from 176 cities and municipalities nationwide.