Senate may require Marcos to submit report on confidential, intel fund use
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate may approve a provision in the 2023 budget that will be introduced by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III that will require President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to submit periodic reports to Congress on his office’s use of confidential and intelligence funds.
During deliberations on the Office of the President’s proposed budget for next year at the Senate plenary on Thursday, Pimentel asked Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara if he is open to require Marcos’ office to submit accomplishment reports on confidential and intelligence funds.
“There is no danger in revealing the ultimate recipient of the funds — an accomplishment report on what has usage of these funds accomplished,” Pimentel said.
He added, “If it’s on the accomplishment, not on who received the peso or the amounts, the identity of the informer will remain confidential. For example, we solved a murder case, we prevented a bombing in this city.”
Angara, who was sponsoring the OP’s budget, said “there should be no problem” if the amendment that Pimentel will propose will be in these “general terms.”
“I don’t foresee there would be too much resistance to that request, your honor,” Angara said.
Congress inserted a similar provision in the 2021 budget, but then President Rodrigo Duterte rejected it and argued that matters relating to national security are exempted from the right to information.
READ: Duterte spent entire P4.5 billion allocation for confidential, intel funds in 2021
‘I expect to be defeated’
Marcos’ office is proposing a total of P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds for next year, much like the previous occupant of the presidency, Rodrigo Duterte.
Copies of National Expenditure Programs since 2006 available on the website of the Department of Budget and Management show that the president and vice president’s offices under previous administrations typically got confidential funds but at more modest amounts.
For example, in the last budget submitted under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her office asked for P600 million in confidential and intelligence funds, which amounts to around P930 million when adjusted for inflation.
Even more modest were the confidential and intelligence funds requested by the late President Benigno Aquino III, who in his last budget asked for only P500 million in total, amounting to just a little under P600 million in today’s money.
Pimentel asked why Marcos’ OP is asking for enormous confidential and intelligence funds when there are existing agencies who can do intelligence work for him.
“I would expect that he’s not just a user but a gatherer of information,” Angara replied. “Because there may be individuals who are not willing to give that information to a large organization and expose themselves. But if they know that information is going directly to the president, then that would encourage them to give that information.”
Consistent with his previous pronouncements, Pimentel said he will move to slash the OP’s confidential and intelligence funds.
“In due time, I will propose an amendment to reduce the CIF given to the Office of the President, but I expect to be defeated,” he said.
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