Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian confirmed that the Office of the Vice President had requested the Senate to shoulder the food and drinks of the defense team, staff, and witnesses of Vice President Sara Duterte during the impeachment trial.

However, Gatchalian maintained that the Senate's budget cannot accommodate the request, as priority is being given to the budget for hearings.

He said the Senate Impeachment Court is still studying the request, while no formal response has been given yet to the letter from the Office of the Vice President.

Gatchalian also said the Senate may need to rent additional facilities at the PICC, as some session and committee rooms are already being used for the impeachment trial.

Because of this, he said the Senate's limited funds need to be prioritized for its upcoming hearings.

"Desisyon na yan ng management ng Senado kung papayagan o hindi. It's a basic issue of budget eh. Hindi kaya ng budget dahil nga meron tayong mga gastusin. We have to prioritize of course yung budget hearings and committee hearings."

[That's a decision for the Senate management on whether to allow it or not. It's basically a budget issue. The budget can't afford it because we have expenses. We have to prioritize, of course, the budget for hearings and committee hearings]

SP Gatchalian also added that the Senate cannot afford it. 

"We can not afford it, in short."

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