AN opposition lawmaker yesterday challenged Malacañang to give up a portion of the proposed P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) of the Office of the President (OP) for 2024 following the examples of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Solicitor General.
“Will the Office of the President voluntarily relinquish a good portion of its huge confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) for 2024 amounting to P4.5 billion, following the examples of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Solicitor General which forfeited the whole or a great portion of their secret funds?” asked Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires has formally told the Senate and House of Representatives he was willing to give up his office’s confidential funds and has requested the two chambers to only allocate P1 million to the Office of the Ombudsman for next year and 2025.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III the other day urged his colleagues in the upper chamber to slash the proposed P2.25 billion confidential fund (CF) of the Office of the President and “eliminate” its P2.3 billion intelligence fund and realign these to intelligence-gathering agencies.
Pimentel pointed out that the OP is a civilian agency and is not directly involved in intel gathering.
Lagman, a former chair of the House Con Appropriations during the Arroyo administration, said it was during the time of former president Rodrigo Duterte that the CIF of the Executive “ballooned to P4.5 billion from only P500 million during the time of President Benigno Aquino III or (a) 900 percent increase.”
During the time of former president and now Deputy Speaker Gloria Arroyo, the veteran lawmaker noted that the CIF of the OP was only P600 million.
Lagman said “any forfeited funds from the CIF of President Marcos Jr. will go a long way to further support specific activities of the Departments of Health, Labor and Employment, and Social Welfare and Development, as well as rice productivity and financial assistance to farmers.”
He pointed out that, anyway, the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), both attached to the OP, have been reallocated confidential funds in the amount of P100 million and P300 million, respectively, after congressmen introduced amendments to the P5.768 trillion proposed national budget for 2024.
Lagman’s call comes following the decision of a small committee panel led by Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, ACT), chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations to strip the Office of the Vice President (OVP) of its proposed P500 million confidential funds for 2024.
While the panel retained the P150 million proposed confidential funds of the Department of Education (DepEd), which Vice President Sara Duterte leads as concurrent education secretary, it realigned the appropriation for the agency’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE), which, unlike CIFs, can be audited by the COA.
The Co-led committee recommended the transfer of a total of P1.23 billion from the OVP and other agencies to the following: P300 million to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), P100 million to the National Security Council (NSC), P200 million to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for intelligence activities and ammunition, and P381.8 million to the Department of Transportation (DOTR) for airport development and the expansion of Pag-asa Island airport in the WPS, which is just part of its P3 billion total allocation.
Congressmen also converted the confidential funds of the following agencies into Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE(sad) P30 million for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), P25 million for DICT, P30 million for DFA, and P50 million for the Office of the Ombudsman.
