Senate to review confidential funds of OVP, DepEd – Zubiri

MANILA, Philippines — A Senate oversight committee will review the use of confidential funds of civilian agencies, including the controversial combined secret funds worth P650 million of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte for her office and the Department of Education (DepEd).

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, who chairs the oversight panel, said they would determine if the funds were properly utilized based on the guidelines set in a 2015 joint circular.

In the joint circular of the Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of National Defense, Governance Commission for GOCC and the Commission on Audit, confidential expenses are allocated to civilian government agencies for their surveillance activities that support their mandate and operations.

During the Senate budget deliberations on the Office of the Vice President and DepEd last Monday, Duterte said the OVP can “live without the confidential funds,” although it could help the office in implementing its projects and activities.

Meanwhile, DepEd spokesman Michael Poa said the agency needed the surveillance funds to monitor alleged communist recruitment in public schools.

At a press briefing yesterday, Zubiri said the oversight committee convened for the first time for an organizational meeting to discuss its rules and functions.

According to the adopted rules, the select oversight committee can examine the use of all confidential and intelligence funds and require the presence of agency heads to justify the use of their secret funds.

While confidential funds are granted to civilian agencies, intelligence funds are given to military and security personnel for their intelligence information gathering on matters of national security.

The oversight committee hearing was held in an executive session as it involved matters of national security.

“We assure everyone that the majority and minority are working hand in hand to ensure that these funds are put to proper use,” Zubiri said.

He added that there were improper uses of these funds, such as its use to relocate informal settler families by an agency, which he refused to name.

The Senate President remarked that the Office of the President (OP) has submitted a comprehensive report on the use of its confidential fund.

Asked if the OVP has submitted a similarly comprehensive report on the use of its P500-million confidential fund, Zubiri said, “No comment.”

He added that the oversight committee has only gone to the “broad strokes” of government agencies’ confidential funds use.

“The public’s criticism is why do civilian agencies have more confidential funds than actual intelligence agencies? That is part of the review we’re doing,” Zubiri said.

Should agencies fail to justify the use of their confidential funds, he emphasized that there is a “big possibility” that the Senate may realign their proposed secret fund for 2024 to other agencies, such as the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), to augment its P10-million intelligence fund which has not been increased since 2009.

The PCG and other security agencies, as well as the country’s cybersecurity backbone, may need the secret funding more amid threats to the country’s sovereignty by the Chinese Coast Guard and maritime vessels intruding in Philippine waters, according to Zubiri.

“We feel that these are interesting times. We need to give budget to cybersecurity. The Philippines is very vulnerable to cyber attacks,” he said.

The oversight committee, however, has not discussed the alleged illegal use of P125-million confidential funds for the OVP last year, which it charged to the contingent funds from the OP, Zubiri added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros flagged the OVP’s use of confidential funds in 2022 using the P221.4-million contingent funds from the OP, even though the OVP has no line item for confidential funds in the 2022 General Appropriations Act.

Hontiveros also questioned the DepEd’s use of its P150-million confidential funds to conduct surveillance activities on public schools.

“I support the DepEd’s goal of making our places of learning safe. However, government efforts should not trample on the rights of our innocent and vulnerable students, teachers, parents and school personnel,” she said in a statement yesterday.

“I wish to remind the DepEd that the government has the primordial duty of fostering an environment of freedom and dignity for our young students, based on both local and international laws. Keeping our children safe includes keeping them away from the potential abuse associated with state surveillance,” she added.