MANILA - Senator Chiz Escudero on Wednesday pressed for transparency on how government agencies receiving confidential and intelligence funds utilize such budget.

The senator underlined this point during Tuesday’s deliberation of the Department of Education's proposed 2024 budget totaling to P758.6B, with P150 million allocated as confidential funds.

Escudero said government officials asking for CIF for 2024 must reveal their “physical and financial plan” on how they will spend the money.

The Office of the Vice President and DepEd personnel who were present in the hearing were peppered with questions regarding the agencies’ request to be given P500 million and P150M confidential funds, respectively, which critics maintain are questionable, unnecessary and lacked transparency.

In her defense, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte maintained their request and use of confidential funds is based on the Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01, which prescribes “guidelines on the entitlement, release, use, reporting and audit of confidential and/or intelligence funds.”

Escudero said agencies with confidential funds like those of the OVP and DepEd should just submit their list of expenditures as required by the JMC.

“The point I am driving at and the reason I am asking for this, Madam Chair, is to disabuse the thoughts of the people that confidential fund is a secret fund. Hindi naman ito pwedeng gastusin sa gusto lang gastusin ng DepEd Secretary... There are specific rules as to where this can be spent, how this can be spent, and to disabuse the mind of people that this is like a secret fund, it is not. secret ‘yung submission ng expenditure but they are only specific items that you can spend it on,” he pointed out.

For Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the DepEd must be transparent on how it will spend its requested P150M confidential fund for next year.

“Hanggang ngayon hindi malinaw kung paano gagamitin ng DepEd ang napakalaki na confidential budget na ito na mas malaki pa sa confidential fund ng mismong DND (Department of National Defense). Let’s set our priorities straight, and ensure that not a single peso in public funds is wasted on vague and/or counterproductive measures,” Hontiveros said.

• House committee approves Office of the President's P10-B 2024 budget

SELECT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON CIFs REVIVED

On Wednesday, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri convened an organizational meeting of the Select Oversight Committee on Intelligence and Confidential Funds, Programs, and Activities, which main task is to evaluate how the 28 government agencies with either confidential or intelligence funds utilized such budget for years 2022 and 2023.

“Katulad nyan, meron kami listahan nitong taon na mga ahensya ng gobyerno may confidential or intelligence funds, we're going to come up, we will have to review it all then we have to come up with the report. Tama bang gastos nila dito? Dapat bang tanggalin ito sa kanila, bawasan o kailangan bang dagdagan?,” Zubiri explained.

Senators who are part of the Select Oversight Committee are Migz Zubiri, Sonny Angara, Koko Pimentel, Joel Villanueva, and Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa.

Zubiri said confidential or intelligence budgets that will be slashed to agencies that will fail to justify their spending, will be realigned to other agencies in need like the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard.

On the same day, the Senate Finance Committee also discussed the proposed 2024 budget of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency or NICA which amounts to P1.432 billion, as well as of the National Security Council’s requested P629.278 million.

The budget deliberation, however, was held in a closed-door session given the sensitivity of the tasks of the two agencies.

Zubiri said, both NICA and NSC also deserve a budget increase.

“We feel that these are interesting times and we need to give budgets to the NICA and the NSA in terms of cyber-security. The Philippines is very vulnerable to cyber-hacks and cyber-attacks,” Zubiri told journalists Wednesday.

The Select Oversight Committee has already directed the 28 agencies to submit their report on this matter.

As of this writing according to Zubiri, only the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President were able to comply with their directive.

The OP’s CIF reporting was in full detail, he said, but keeps mum about the OVP report saying that they have yet to fully examine the agency’s submitted documents.

Agencies that will submit a vague or incomplete report will be summoned by the committee, Zubiri said.

The Select Oversight Committee will hold its first formal closed-door meeting next week, with a target to complete its evaluation of all subject agencies before the formal submission of the Marcos Jr. administration’s proposed P6.768T 2024 national budget.

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