EDITORIAL - Scrap the joint circular

With the ongoing congressional deliberations on the proposed national budget for 2025, confidential and intelligence funds are once again in the spotlight. And with details of the way secret funds have been utilized, proposals have been revived to revisit and possibly scrap the joint circular that broadened the use of CIF by civilian agencies including local government units.

Joint Circular No. 2015-01 was approved by the Commission on Audit together with the Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of National Defense and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations.

COA guidelines defined confidential funds as lump sums allocated for “surveillance activities in civilian government agencies” to support their mandate. Intelligence funds, on the other hand, are used for “intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel and intelligence practitioners” that have a direct impact on national security.

Civilian offices including local government units, however, still rely on MUP and security agencies – including the police, military and National Bureau of Investigation – to conduct surveillance and gather intel. Allocating confidential or secret funds to civilian agencies is unnecessary and goes against efforts to promote transparency in the utilization of public funds. The joint circular has been abused, with LGUs classifying ever-increasing amounts of people’s money as confidential funds that bypass normal auditing rules.

Sara Duterte, as mayor of Davao City, had P144 million in annual confidential funds at the start of her father’s presidency in 2016. By the end of the Duterte administration, Davao City’s secret funds had ballooned to P460 million a year. In her first six months as Vice President, Sara Duterte spent P125 million in confidential funds in just 11 days in December 2022, according to the COA.

If she had not been squabbling with her erstwhile allies in the administration, she would have been granted her request for a whopping P500 million in confidential funds this year for the Office of the Vice President, plus another P150 million for the Department of Education. For 2025, the OVP is no longer seeking confidential funds. But lawmakers are not putting the issue to rest, with the COA asked to provide details about how the P125 million was spent in just 11 days.

Among the expenditure items listed were tables, chairs, computers and medicines as “reward.” The disbursements, along with several items totaling P73 million, were disallowed by COA, which has ordered the OVP to return the amount.

Such misuse of secret funds by civilian agencies, however, is likely to be widespread. It’s time to scrap that joint circular, and to leave security-related matters to the security agencies.