OVP medical, burial aid fund scrapped

Funding for the medical and burial assistance program of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) has been removed from this year's national budget.

- By NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

Over 180,000 Filipinos benefited from the program last year.

"There is no approved budget for the medical and burial assistance program of the OVP under the 2025 General Appropriations Act. We apologize for the inconvenience," the OVP said.

The program received a P920-million budget last year, comprising about half of the P1.8 billion allocated to the OVP.

In 2023, the program had the same allocation under the P2.3-billion budget of the OVP.

Lawmakers proposed cutting the funding for the OVP's social welfare projects as it overlapped with programs of the Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

This left the OVP with over P733 million in total funding this year.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the OVP could still implement its projects by seeking grants from the DSWD, where lawmakers pushed to realign most of the OVP's social assistance funding.

"She can still access (funding) from the DSWD," Pangandaman told The STAR.