Duterte’s office grilled over proposed P4.5B confidential, intelligence funds for 2022

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the President (OP) was grilled Thursday over its proposed P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) for 2022, which is 800 percent higher than the last budget crafted by the previous administration.

For 2022, the OP proposes a P2.250 billion budget for its confidential funds and another P2.250 billion for its intelligence funds—a total of P4.5 billion.

But ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro pointed out that the OP is a “pure civilian office with no military or uniformed personnel,” and thus, does not need to have intelligence funds.

“Saan ginamit ang mga ito? War chest? Pre-campaign and campaign funds? Pagpapabango ng sarili at mga kaalyado? Sa panahon ng pandemya at krisis, hindi ganito ang Office of the President na inaasahan ng mga mamamayan,” Castro said.

(Where was this fund used? War chest? Pre-campaign and campaign funds? To make the administration and their allies look good? At a time of pandemic and crisis, this is not the Office of the President that the public is expecting.)

Castro said that only the President of the country has discretion over the use of intelligence funds.

“Mabibilang lang sa kamay ang mga taong makakakita ng audit over these funds kaya ibig sabihin, mayroong at least P4.5 bilyong piso mula sa buwis ng mamamayan na hindi nila alam kung ginagastos nga ba para sa kanila,” Castro said.

(You can count on your fingers the number of people that will see the audit over these funds so it means we have at least P4.5 billion from the taxes of the public that we do not know if they are spent.)

Zamboanga del Norte 1st District Rep. Romeo Jalosjos Jr., who was sponsoring the proposed budget of the OP, said that President Rodrigo Duterte is the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

He also noted that Duterte’s Cabinet included the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretary of Interior and Local Government, and the national security adviser, which are “under his control.”

“With this power, duties, and functions, he should be given the flexibility for having control likewise over the confidential and intelligence funds,” Jalosjos said.

“Knowing his wisdom and impartiality, he can allocate a portion of his CIF to agencies, as the need arises,” he added.

According  to the Commission on Audit (COA), confidential funds are used for “surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support the mandate or operations of the agency.”

Meanwhile, intelligence funds are used for “intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel, and intelligence practitioners that have direct impact to national security.”

In the 2016 national budget, the last budget crafted by the Aquino administration, CIF was only at P500 million—P250 million for confidential funds and P250 million for intelligence funds.

This increased to P2.5 billion—P1.25 billion each for confidential funds and intelligence funds—in 2017. CIF stayed at P2.5 billion until 2019 before it further increased to P4.5 billion in 2020.

je