A PHILIPPINE senator on Wednesday proposed barring civilian agencies from using their contingency funds to increase their confidential and intelligence funds (CIF).
“Again, as a matter of fiscal prudence, we would like to include the augmentation of the CIF as a prohibition under the Contingent Fund along with the prohibition to tap the said fund for the purchase of, say, motor vehicles,” Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel said at a plenary session tackling next year’s proposed P5.768-trillion national budget.
“What I am thinking is to propose the amendment (to the 2024 budget bill) at the proper time and will not pertain to security agencies that have clear national defense and public safety mandates… but civilian agencies that don’t have these directives,” the senator added.
She was citing the P125 million transfer of confidential funds to Office of the Vice President (OVP) last year.
On Tuesday, a group of lawyers asked the Supreme Court to void the transfer of CIF to the OVP for being illegal.
Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo, citing a state audit report, said the OVP spent the P125 million in confidential funds in 11 days last year.
Philippine congressman last month stripped several agencies including the OVP of their confidential funds, transferring P1.23 billion of these funds to security agencies amid worsening tensions with China.
At the same hearing, Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” F. Angara, citing Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, clarified the Vice President’s confidential funds had not been transferred but released by the Budget department.
Mr. Angara noted that the Senate’s budget bill adopted the realigned P9.82 billion in total confidential and intelligence funds of the lower chamber’s bill. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
