CHR: P1 million in confidential funds for human rights probes, witness protection
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights bared during a budget briefing that it uses up all its confidential funds to investigate human rights violations and support victims, prompting lawmakers to compare its use of the fund with the country’s two top officials.
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc told the House appropriations panel on Wednesday that its proposed P1 million in confidential funds — the same amount it received last year — also go toward protecting witnesses.
The CHR also used up 100% of the funds in previous years, Palpal-latoc said.
“As an investigative body, it is surprising that the commission is allocated a very minimal amount for confidential funds. How can we effectively provide that service for investigating? We are also doing victim support and referral systems, and part of this is witness protection,” Palpal-latoc said.
The confidential funds for the CHR are “very much needed,” he added.
Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay, 1st District) commended the CHR for not “joining the official avirice for confidential funds.”
“I think that between the Department of Education and the Office of the Vice President, your mission is more germane in availing of a reasonable amount of confidential funds,” he added.
Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) also pointed out during CHR’s budget deliberations that the commission has had to "sacrifice" a couple of its mandates due to its limited budget every year.
For 2024, the CHR is allotted just P967 million for its total budget. This represents a nearly 50% decrease from its original proposal of P1.924 billion. This is also smaller than its P993 million budget for 2023.
“The confidential funds should be allocated to agencies that are more transparent and would benefit more,” Castro said in Filipino.
Lagman earlier criticized the scale at which agencies have availed of the “secret fund” and lamented its huge allocations in the proposed budget for 2024.
During DepEd's budget briefing last week, Lagman asked Duterte if she could settle for a lower amount of the controversial fund due to shortages in the education sector. Duterte, however, defended the P150 lump sum in DepEd's proposed 2024 budget, reiterating that education is "intertwined with national security."
Both Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stand to get hefty sums of confidential funds in the proposed 2024 budget, and the swift termination of their budget hearings has prompted minority lawmakers to accuse them of dodging questions about how they spend it.
Castro, in particular, has questioned the “parliamentary courtesy” tradition of ending budget briefings early out of respect for the country’s top two officials. In particular, the lawmaker said that the public would benefit more from a transparent discussion of the confidential expenditures which have been increasing every year.
In the proposed 2024 budget, P4.56 billion in confidential funds will go to the Office of the President while P150 million and P500 million will go to DepEd and OVP, respectively.
RELATED: Confidential and intelligence funds explained
Confidential and intelligence funds are budget allocations reserved for costs associated with an agency’s surveillance and intelligence-gathering activities.
Unlike the auditing process for regular government budget allocations, auditing confidential and intelligence funds is done privately with oversight agencies, which means it is largely dependent on transparent and accurate submissions of how it is spent.
Duterte said during the Senate finance committee’s deliberations of the OVP budget that her office uses the confidential funds in several programs and projects, most of which are related to social welfare and assistance.
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