MANILA (UPDATED) — Progressive group Bayan Muna on Sunday said confidential funds to be reallocated to the Philippine Coast Guard would be better put in specific line-item funding for the agency.

Discussions on confidential funds and how they are audited have led House leaders to promise to remove confidential funds from some agencies, including the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

• Lawmaker guarantees reallocation of OVP, DepEd confidential funds

The OVP and DepEd, both headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, are requesting a combined P650 million in confidential funds for 2024.

Following public pressure, confidential funds are expected to be reallocated to the PCG and other agencies keeping watch over the West Philippine Sea.

Budget items for the Coast Guard

Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares said Congress should realign the funds as "additional budgetary item to the PCG for more assets and ships to patrol the [West Philippine Sea]" but not as confidential funds, which are subject to audit but remain confidential in nature.

"In fact, it would be better if Congress realigns Duterte's [Confidential and Intelligence Fund] to the budget of state universities and colleges or free tuition programs of the government or other social services," Colmenares said.

Some 30 state universities and colleges face a P6.155-billion cut in the proposed budget for 2024.

Should Congress insist on realigning the funds as confidential, the former lawmaker said the Coast Guard or any other agency that would receive more secret funds "must be required" to submit a plan containing itemized projects related to the West Philippine Sea to check their spending.

• OVP explains spending P125-M confidential funds in 19 days in 2022
• More confidential, intel funds for Coast Guard, 3 other agencies sought

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DAVAO CITY CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS

In the same statement, Colmenares urged state auditors to look into the expenses of Duterte's office when she was mayor of Davao City from 2016-2022.

Colmenares said during the six-year period, the confidential funds of the Davao City mayor's office amounted to a "staggering" P2.697 billion.

"If all these have been allocated and spent in just six years, surely the people of Davao [deserve] to know, as these could have been spent on education, free medicine, health services, and other social services for the people instead of being spent in a difficult to audit item called 'confidential fund.'"

Colmenares also said that the Commission on Audit should check if the funds were used in accordance with the COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 2015-01 which limits the use of such money only to those related to surveillance activities.

Duterte has yet to issue a statement on the confidential fund allocation during her term as Davao City mayor but has previously said the OVP and DepEd can live without confidential funds.

She previously also dismissed questions on her offices' confidential funds as lies and attacks from "a gang of individuals who had successfully mastered the art of fabricating lies."

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, in a message on Sunday, said that local government units can have confidential funds as long as they are not abused.

"My opinion about this, is, as long as it is not abused and used in accordance with the intention of the law in maintaining peace and order in their LGUs, [and] strictly conforming with the limitations and requirements of the law, and guidelines issued by appropriate agencies," he said.

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