MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde on Friday blamed politics for their failure to secure bigger intelligence fund that would have helped them fight security threats more effectively.
Albayalde stressed the importance of allocating sufficient intelligence funds for PNP in order to strengthen its capabilities in gathering information, including modernization of its technical equipment, to combat menaces like terrorism.
“Medyo meron kasing political [factor] kung minsan, opposition, alam mo naman ‘yung politics sa atin,” he said when asked on the matter in a chance interview during the celebration of the 118th Police Service Anniversary at Camp Olivas in San Fernando City, Pampanga.
“That’s one hindrance minsan kung bakit hindi tayo makakuha at hindi natin maipresenta sa budget natin iyon. Kasi there are, well, political hindrances dito, may mga political obstacles,” he said.
(That’s one hindrance sometimes why we cannot obtain or request that in our budget. There are political hindrances, political obstacles here.)
According to Albayalde, the country does not only have a problem on communist insurgency since it also faces threat groups in Mindanao, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group and other groups affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“We have to invest. Remember, nag-iba na ‘yung playing field dito. We have one incident already when there is a suicide bomber na local, na Filipino, so kailangan na natin talagang pagtuunan ng pansin ito,” the PNP chief said, referring to 23-year-old Norman Lasuca, one of the two alleged suicide bombers in the deadly attack at a military camp in Indanan, Sulu, on June 28 that left seven people killed and 22 others wounded.
(We have to invest. Remember that the playing field here has changed. We already have one incident when there is a Filipino suicide bomber, so we really have to give attention to the matter.)
READ: Confirmed: One of two ‘suicide bombers’ in Sulu blasts a Filipino
Recently, administration critic and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said the huge funds allocated for surveillance operations requested by the Office of the President would make the country look like a “de facto police-military state.”
READ: Zarate: Huge intel fund makes PH look like police-military state
Based on the proposed National Expenditure Program for 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte’s office is requesting a total of P4.5 billion fund for its confidential and intelligence expenses, significantly higher than the P2.5 billion fund it requested in 2018 and 2019.
Meanwhile, the proposed budget for PNP was increased from the current P173.5 billion to P184.9 billion in 2020.
READ: Albayalde cites ‘very important’ role of big intel fund in fight vs terrorism
/kga