MANILA, Philippines — It was during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte that the confidential and intelligence expenses of the Office of the President (OP) skyrocketed to billions of pesos, based on figures from the Commission on Audit (COA).
A review of COA’s annual financial reports (AFRs) on national government (NG), which can be downloaded from its website, showed that in 2016 or during the shared term of Duterte and his predecessor, the late former president Benigno Aquino III, the OP only had P715.23 million in “confidential, intelligence and extraordinary (CIE) expenses,” representing 17.78 percent of the NG’s P4.02-billion total for that year. Duterte formally assumed the presidency on June 30, 2016.
In 2017, during Duterte’s first full year in office, the OP’s CIE expenses increased by 252.33 percent or to P2.52 billion, representing 28.05 percent of the NG’s P8.97-billion total that year.
The OP’s CIE expenses slightly decreased to P2.51 billion and P2.41 billion in 2018 and 2019, respectively, before ballooning again to P4.57 billion in 2020, an increase of 89.63 percent from the previous year.
It was in 2020 when the COA started separating in its annual financial reporting the government offices’ confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) expenses from their “extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (EME).”
Thus, COA’s AFR for 2020 showed that of P4.57-billion expenses incurred by the OP that year, P2.32 billion was for confidential expenses and P2.25 billion for intelligence expenses.
The OP’s CIF expenses in 2020 were the highest in the entire term of Duterte, representing 51.41 percent of the P8.89-billion total CIF expenses of the NG for that year.
The audit body’s breakdown showed that the OP’s CIF expenses in 2020 were way higher than those incurred by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) that year, amounting to P1.94 billion and P923.42 million, respectively.
The DND has the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Presidential Security Group and the Office of the Civil Defense as attached agencies, while DILG’s attached agencies include the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
In 2021, the last full year of Duterte in office, the OP incurred a total of P4.5 billion in CIF expenses, accounting for 49.55 percent of the P9.08-billion total CIF expenses of the NG.
The OP’s CIF spending included P2.25 billion in confidential expenses and another P2.25 billion in intelligence expenses.
The OP’s CIF spending stayed the same in 2022, the shared term of Duterte and his successor President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who formally assumed office on June 30, 2022.
The OP’s P4.5 billion in CIF expenses for 2022 represented 48.17 percent of the P9.34-billion total CIF expenses of the NG for that year.
Aquino’s expenses
Duterte’s CIF spending record was a stark contrast to the spending history of his predecessor, which did not even hit the billion-peso mark.
In 2010, during the shared term of Aquino and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the OP only incurred P69 million in confidential expenses plus P4.1 million in extraordinary expenses and P4 million in miscellaneous expenses.
During his first full year in office in 2011, Aquino did not incur any confidential or intelligence expenses but had P5.2 million in extraordinary expenses and P5.5 million in miscellaneous expenses.
The largest amount of confidential expenses that Aquino’s office had was in 2012 at P638 million, on top of P5.61 million in extraordinary expenses and P5.8 million in miscellaneous expenses.
The OP’s confidential expenses decreased to P150 million in 2013, plus P5.84 million in extraordinary expenses and P5.85 million in miscellaneous expenses.
In 2014 and 2015, the OP incurred a total of P433.52 million and P453.59 million in “confidential, intelligence and extraordinary expenses,” respectively.
Like father, like daughter?
Duterte’s CIF spending pattern had similarities with his daughter, Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte, during the latter’s term as Davao City mayor.
Based on COA’s AARs, the Davao City government incurred a total of P2.697 billion in confidential expenses during the younger Duterte’s term as mayor from 2016 to 2022,
This was way higher than the CF spending of other larger and wealthier local government units (LGUs) such as Cebu City, Quezon City, Manila City and Makati City for the same years.
The COA’s figures showed that Davao City government’s confidential expenses soared to P293 million in 2017 during the first full term of the younger Duterte as mayor, an increase of 103.5 percent from P144 million in 2016, during her shared term with her father before the latter assumed the presidency.
The city’s confidential expenses ballooned further to P420 million in 2018, then to P460 million yearly from 2019 to 2022.
Sara was succeeded by her brother Sebastian Duterte as Davao City mayor after the May 9, 2022 elections.
Sara is currently in hot water after it was revealed, also through the COA’s AAR, that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) incurred P125 million in confidential expenses in 2022, from zero confidential expenses in 2021 during the last full term of her predecessor, Leni Robredo.
The revelation in the audit report became controversial as the OVP had no confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) allocation under Republic Act 11639 or the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
It was later revealed that the P125-million fund came from the Office of the President (OP), after Duterte wrote a letter dated Aug. 22, 2022 addressed to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), asking for a total of P403.46-million budget augmentation supposedly to “ensure continuous operations of the OVP under the current year.”
It was also revealed during the budget hearings at the House of Representatives that the OVP spent the P125-million CF it received from the OP in just 19 days from Dec. 13 to 31, or roughly P6.5 million per day.