MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte is letting go of her request for a combined P650 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), saying she must move on from such a “divisive” issue.
She gave this statement to the Senate yesterday amid reports that senators had decided to realign the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd, which she concurrently heads, along with those of other civilian agencies without security functions.
Senate finance committee chair Sen. Sonny Angara accompanied Duterte upon her arrival at the Senate for the deliberations on the 2024 budgets of the two agencies.
“We’re in receipt of a statement from the Vice President. According to her, the OVP can only propose a budget to support the safe implementation of its activities and programs,” Angara said.
“Nonetheless, they will no longer pursue the confidential fund, and the reason why is because it is seen to be divisive. As the Vice President, she swore an oath to keep the country peaceful and strong,” he added.
During plenary deliberation into the DepEd’s budget yesterday, budget sponsor Sen. Pia Cayetano echoed Duterte’s statement that she is letting go of her request for P150 million in confidential funds for the department.
Cayetano said according to the transmitted budget bill, DepEd’s secret fund request of P150 million was realigned by the House of Representatives to the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program.
“DepEd will no longer pursue the confidential fund. We humbly request that the fund is realigned to the national learning recovery program. We do not expect good scores in the PISA results coming out this December,” Cayetano said, referring to the Program for International Student Assessment.
After deliberations, the proposed 2024 budgets of the OVP and the Office of the President easily hurdled the plenary and was adopted by the Senate, inching nearer to approval.
During the debate, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III also questioned the OP’s request for P2.31-billion intelligence funds when it is not a uniformed or military agency.
But Angara said the President is in need of intelligence funds as both user and source of confidential information, as well as for his role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Meanwhile Pimentel said he has no problem with the OP’s request for P2.25 billion confidential funds even though it is a civilian government agency, as long as these are spent on surveillance in support of its programs and activities.
Budget transfers
During plenary debates on the OP’s proposed budget, senators also deliberated on the OP’s controversial release of P221.424 million contingent fund to augment the OVP’s projects and secret fund request in 2022.
Vice President Duterte used a portion of the transferred contingent fund for her office to have P125 million in confidential funds even though her predecessor Leni Robredo did not request for such a fund in the OVP’s 2022 budget.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros stressed the need to amend the Special Provision No. 1 in the budget law that will allow the OP to augment other agencies’ programs and activities with its P13 billion worth of contingent funds next year.
The senator said the provision should expressly prohibit confidential funds from being charged to the contingent fund to prevent a repeat of the controversial budget transfer.
For his part, Angara said the transfer of OP’s contingent fund for Duterte’s office in 2022 was aboveboard, but the budget act should be called a “release” and not a cross-border “transfer,” which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
“What I was told was that this was not an augmentation because an augmentation has a very technical meaning in budgetary terms,” Angara said.
“What I was told was that this was a release from the contingent funds, thus not subject to the rules set forth in laws and jurisprudence, which pertains specifically to augmentation of savings which are authorized to be done.”
Asked about the speedy spending of the OVP’s P125 million confidential funds in 2022 in just 11 days, Angara said the OVP needed to disburse the budget before yearend having only received the budget in December after requesting it in August that year.
“Under modified cash-based budgeting, the OVP is obligated to spend the money. You lose it or you use it. Otherwise, the agency will lose the budget,” he said.
Hontiveros maintained the need to scrutinize such a budget transfer from the office of President Marcos to his running mate and ally, Vice President Duterte.
“With such a move of big money from the most important office of government to the second most important office of government, there is therefore a need for governing rules and procedures. Shouldn’t there be a prudent policy on this kind of augmentation of funds, from one important office to another?” Hontiveros said.
‘Not a good policy’
Pimentel said allowing contingent funds to be used as confidential funds is not a sound fiscal policy, as there’s a possibility that contingent funds would be converted to secret funds in the future.
“Theoretically speaking, if that is allowed, the entire P13 billion for next year is convertible to a confidential and intelligence fund,” Pimentel said. “If we allow that, I don’t think it’s a good policy.”
Angara said while it may be a possibility, it is not “practical” for the OP to use up its contingent funds as secret funds when it was meant to augment the budget of other agencies’ urgent programs and activities that year.
“Practically speaking, it would not happen. Contingent fund is meant for all contingencies for all agencies of government. It would not be responsible to release it in a form of confidential fund for the whole amount. There may be other contingencies that need funding,” he said.
Abolish confidential funds
Organizations affiliated with the #AbolishConfidentialFunds campaign network held a protest at the Senate on Thursday to call for the complete eradication of confidential funds concealed within the proposed 2024 national budget.
In an open letter addressed to senators, the group voiced concern about the surge in confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), soaring from P1.58 billion in 2016 to a staggering P10.14 billion in the proposed 2024 budget.
They claimed that at least 28 agencies sought P4.9 billion in confidential funds, while nine agencies requested P5.3 billion for intelligence funds.
The groups urged the Senate “to go beyond and abolish all confidential funds” amid reports that some senators plan to reinstate a portion of the P1.38 billion in CIFs realigned by the Congress. They specifically highlighted the proposed P4.6 billion CIF of the Office of the President.
“We urge the Senate to realign these funds to critical areas such as health, education, housing, and other social services,” the group said.
They also urged the Senate to allocate higher salaries and benefits for teachers, health care workers and government employees, provide subsidies to small farmers and fisherfolk, and address other urgent needs of the people. — Mark Ernest Villeza