EDITORIAL - Baby step toward reforms

After several days of deliberations, the House committee on appropriations has finalized the list of government agencies that will have zero confidential funds in their 2024 budget. In addition to the Office and the Vice President and the Department of Education, which were the first agencies to be identified by the House of Representatives, the committee has added the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo has said the department does not need confidential funds. The DICT has been taken to task by lawmakers for low utilization of its regular annual appropriation. The DA is headed concurrently by President Marcos, who has over P4 billion in secret funds at the disposal of the Office of the President.

Vice President Sara Duterte, the concurrent education secretary, had requested P150 million in confidential funds for the DepEd and another P500 million for the OVP. The House committee has instead approved P150 million, but as part of the maintenance and other operating expenses of DepEd, and specifically allotted for state assistance for students and teachers in private education. Unlike the confidential and intelligence funds or CIF, the MOOE is subject to regular government auditing rules.

Also getting certain amounts for MOOE are the DICT, DFA, Office of the Ombudsman and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Of the P1.23 billion in realigned confidential funds, P300 million will go to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and P200 million to the Philippine Coast Guard. Another P100 million will go to the National Security Council and P381.8 million to the Department of Transportation for airport development, including the expansion of the airport on Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea.

The realignment is a baby step toward the bigger task of rationalizing not only the allocation of secret funds to national government agencies, but also the wide discretion granted to local government units to declare large chunks of their budgets as confidential funds. Billions of pesos in public funds, declared as confidential by LGU executives, are escaping proper scrutiny by state auditors. This is against constitutional provisions and laws on transparency and accountability in the utilization of public funds.

The issue can be brought to the Supreme Court, but Congress can do its part by legislating institutional changes. The House realignment of CIF is a good start. Now the momentum must be sustained toward far-ranging reforms.