Senate adopts reso forming oversight panel for confidential, intel funds

Senate of the Philippines | INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate adopted on Monday a resolution forming an oversight committee for confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri sponsored Resolution No. 302 during the plenary debates.

The committee will be responsible for the investigation of the P9.2-billion CIFs under the proposed P5.268-trillion 2023 budget.

“We’ve been doing this since the 10th Congress and each Congress has had an oversight committee,” Zubiri said.

“It has been the tradition of the Senate to constitute a select oversight committee for these funds and, we must, in the 19th Congress, continue this tradition,” he added.

According to Zubiri, all funds are subject to audit by the Commission on Audit, but CIFs are “not part of the usual procedures.”

The panel is chaired by Zubiri while the members are Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, Senators Sonny Angara and Ronald dela Rosa.

“Babantay tayo sa pondong ito. Pera ito ng bayan kaya bilang Senado ng bayan, sisiguraduhin natin na taumbayan rin ang makikinabang nito,” Zubiri assured the public.

(We will guard these funds. This is the country’s money that is why, as the nation’s Senate, we will ensure that the countrymen will benefit from this.)

Of the 24-member Senate, only Pimentel and Senator Risa Hontiveros questioned the CIFs which are included in the budgets of the offices of the President and Vice President, among others.

JMS