House, Senate: No confidential fund allocations

MANILA, Philippines — Officials from both chambers of Congress have denied allegations that the House of Representatives and the Senate have allocations for confidential funds. 

In a statement Wednesday, House secretary-general Reginald Velasco said that the lower chamber has no confidential and intelligence funds. 

“All line items in our budget are subject to regular accounting and auditing rules and regulations,” he said. 

Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, senior vice chair of the House committee on appropriations, earlier said that the “allegation on social media about the P1.6 billion is actually extraordinary expenses.”

Senate secretary Renato Bantug Jr. also refuted reports claiming that the upper chamber, under the leadership of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, has a confidential fund amounting to P331 million for 2023. 

“For 2023, only ‘extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses’ has a line item amounting to P331,942,000. There are no line items for ‘confidential funds’ nor ‘intelligence funds,’” Bantug said. 

He explained that the Senate’s extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses were used for meetings, seminars, conferences, public relations, education, and other activities of the chamber. 

Bantug, however, noted that the Senate had secret funds amounting to P100 million in 2021 and P50 million in 2022. 

“But all of these funds were never used and were reverted to the National Treasury in full,” he said. 

Critics have expressed concerns about the allocations of confidential funds for civilian agencies, particularly those without surveillance as their primary mandate. 

The House decided Tuesday to allocate zero confidential funds to the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

According to the House appropriations committee, a total of P1.23 billion in confidential funds will be realigned to agencies leading the efforts to uphold the country’s territorial rights in the West Philippine Sea such as the Philippine Coast Guard. — Gaea Katreena Cabico